The Fangirl and the Magical Paintbrush Fairy
by PunishmentFactor
Summary: Grace is a diehard fangirl, madly in love with a character nobody likes. But when The Magical Paintbrush Fairy -who’s really just Miss Goldenweek- shows up and offers to manifest her fan art, Grace’s fictional crush becomes a rather odd real-life romance.
1. In Which There is a Drawing

**Hello! Well, I've been working on this fic for about a year, and I finally decided I should get around to posting it. This story will in no ways inhibit the posting of my other story, "Deception." This is an unusual story for me. I usually prefer to write drama, but I have chosen to take a stab a humor. However, my sense of humor is a little more than odd, so I hope I manage to amuse you, but you're in for a **_**very**_** strange story. **

**GraceTheFangirl (that's her name) is a very odd OC of mine who I've had in character development for awhile. She is mainly the concept of a fangirl who experiences empathy for 'unloved' characters, and has issues with "reality vs. unreality." (This is in no ways whatsoever a self-insert…no matter how much I, myself, might love the character that shows up.)**

**Those of you who are familiar with the characters I usually write about, I'm sure already know what character is going to turn up. Therefore, I ask you **_**not**_** to give him away in your reviews, so as people who **_**don't**_** know what character I'm talking about will be surprised/shocked/horrified/appalled. (Or most likely stop reading the story.) **

**Lastly, I'm probably going to offend a load of people with this story. Chances are, your favorite character is going to get bashed at least once, among other things. (All in good nature though.) I don't own One Piece, or any characters from other anime that I might mention…like Roy Mustang of FMA, who's going to be mentioned occasionally throughout the fic whether you want him to be or not. **

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* * *

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Have you ever been in love? Okay. Yeah, I know. You're probably thinking, "Oh god, how cheesy is this story going to be? Why am I even bothering to read it?" But bear with it, just for a minute. Like I said…have you ever been in love? Most of us have, in some way or another. But have you ever been in love with someone you couldn't have, because it was _impossible_? I'm not talking about some famous movie star you might have a crush on, or that tall boy next door who's six years older than you and has no idea you exist. Unattainable and impossible as these romances may be, they are a very different sort of impossible.

Have you ever been in love… truly, truly in love with someone who wasn't real?

* * *

"We'll be gone for two weeks." my mother said. "This is a huge responsibility, Grace."

"Yes Grace, do something _productive_ with your time." my father said.

Something…_productive_. Yeah right. My parents were going on vacation for two weeks, and I was in charge of the house. The whole house! My parents were a lot more trusting than most though, I can't think of too many parents who would leave their house for two weeks in the care of their teenage daughter. But I was different than most teenage girls. I wasn't going to throw any rambunctious parties or go out drinking. Nope, not me. Well…I might break into their wine closet occasionally, but for the most part, I was content to be very "productive" by…watching lot's of anime, reading lots of manga and fanfiction, and drawing lots of fan art. That was _my _idea of the word "productive." It was summer vacation, and I had nothing better to do.

Okay, so I was not the best artist in the world. I'm not exactly one of those prodigies who make those flawless prints and then do commissions at anime conventions, but at least you can tell what character I'm trying to draw, and my drawing don't like, burn your eyes out. Unlike my friend Mackenzie on the other hand…

"_Hey Mackenzie, that's a really nice picture of Chopper."_

"_It's not Chopper!"_

"_Uh…then who is it?"_

"_It's Roy Mustang!"_

_"Oh…right. I knew that." _

Mackenzie's got this fetish for Roy Mustang with lots of hair, don't ask. And only she can draw a picture of Roy Mustang and have it end up looking like Chopper in his human-form. Don't look at me, I've never found Roy Mustang all that attractive. Or any anime-heartthrobs for that matter. Characters that most fangirls swoon over, like Ace, Sanji, Zoro, Saskue, Itachi, Gaara, and yes Mackenzie…Roy Mustang, I've never found all that attractive. I find them boring, unoriginal and typical of most anime guys. But who am I to talk, because I do the exact same thing. That is, draw pictures of the same anime guy over and over.

I was in totally _love_ with him.

Okay sure, he wasn't real, he was out a manga.

But who cares about that…er…minor detail? So what if he's not real? Shouldn't the powers of love be able to stretch beyond the dimensions of our world and into the wonderful world of 2-D?

But I had learned the hard way to keep this "infatuation" of mine a secret, after getting kicked out of the "One Piece Otaku Fangirl Club" (how's that for redundant?) for emphatically announcing I was his die-hard fangirl and saying that I thought he was sexier than Ace, Zoro, Sanji, Luffy, and all the other hot guys of the whole series put together. (This is very true.)

That didn't fly real well with them.

I think it kind of pissed them off.

"_Him?"_

_"He's like, your favorite character?"_

_"Are you like, kidding?"_

_"He's like, a freak!" _

_"Isn't he like, gay?" _

_"He has like, tacky hair!"_

_"God! You like, have really bad taste!"_

So they kicked me out.

They were all snobs anyway. And I couldn't put up with them saying 'like' every four words.

Anyway, I decided I would take my time alone and draw the absolute best picture I could of him. I would make it perfect. _Absolutely_ perfect. I would glorify every gorgeous muscular and masculine detail, painstakingly sketch and re-sketch until his shape was perfectly formed. His hair, his eyes, his sword over his shoulder, every inch had to be drawn to sheer perfection. Then I would ink it, filling in only the necessary areas with fine, black pen lines. And then the color. I practiced blending my pencils until I achieved the exact tone of flesh, and hair, and fabric. I heightened the shadows, blended the folds of his clothes carefully to match their exact shade, watching One Piece all the while, replaying the same episode over and over, so I could constantly see him and make sure every detail was perfected. I had to keep the fangasms in check while watching the episodes though, or I would have screwed up my drawing. However, it was rather nice to be able to "Oooo" and "Aahhh" over his every word without having my Mom or Dad walk in and ask me what the hell I was doing that was putting me in such a state of delighted ecstasy.

(I owned several episodes in their original Japanese, seeing as no self-respecting One Piece fan wants to watch the shit that 4kids dished out to us. Honestly people, take a good look at my favorite character, he's obviously Japanese, so why the hell are you giving him a crappy Greek/Russian/French/German/Italian accent? His VA could have at least made up his mind about what nationality he wanted to use instead of trying to mix them in a blender.)

It took me the better part of the first week, four days actually. But when I inked the kanji of his name next to my drawing, and signed my name "_Grace"_ in the corner, I knew I was finished.

But I was sad to be finished. I had poured my heart and soul into that picture, and yet it remained…a picture. And just that. Just a picture. No matter how much I drew, and wished and loved, he was not real. And there was no way I could make him real. He would remain as he was.

And then there was Mackenzie, who constantly chastised me for this unattainable crush, the one out of so few people who knew my secret. Why didn't I move on? I was old enough to be able to tell the difference between fiction and reality.

"Seriously," she would tell me. "You could at least be in love with a popular character. Then you would have other fangirls to sympathize with you and fawn over him. But you just had to pick one of the characters nobody likes, didn't you? Now, _we_ Roy Mustang fangirls on the other hand all flock together like one big loving harem, united by our undying passion for the handsome, charismatic…blah, blah, blah…."

But this was very true, I couldn't deny it. I was in love with a character _nobody_ else seemed to like. A character, _everyone _seemed to hate. I was his only fangirl, for all I knew. He might have other fangirls, maybe two or three, spread out across the world, but none of them could be as dedicated as me.

I carefully hung the picture over my bed, gazing wistfully at what I had drawn. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't he be real? Resisting the strong urge to make out with my drawing, (I was just pathetic…) I went to bed, hoping maybe, I might at least dream about him.

I hoped the dream would involve _lemons_.

* * *

"Hey you, are you awake?"

"Huh?"

"You, your name's Grace, isn't it? Are you awake?"

I felt something poke me in the forehead. I groggily opened my eyes to see a strangely familiar-looking girl with thick braids, poking my forehead with the end of a long paint brush.

"Finally." she said, surveying me. "Now we can get to down to business."

"Hey I know you!" I said enthusiastically. "You're Miss Goldenweek!"

"Umm…no I'm not." she said, very unconvincingly. "You must be thinking of someone else. I come from a distant and magical land," she continued. "Its whereabouts are only known to-"

"You mean like Spider's Café in Alabasta?" I said. "Hey, how's Miss Valentine? I hear she makes chocolate now. I always liked her earrings. Any chance she'd give them to me? I wanted to cosplay her at the last convention I went to, but my Mom accidentally chucked the lemon slices I was drying out."

"I really have no idea what you are talking about." she said loudly, completely ignoring my question. "I come from a distant and magical land, its whereabouts unknown to the human world. I come and seek out fangirls such as yourself who have poured their heart and their soul into a single work of art, and I have the power to manifest their desires through their drawings."

She paused dramatically and raised her paintbrush in the air.

"For I am the Magical Paintbrush Fairy!" she announced.

If I could've sweat-dropped, that would have been the time.

"No you're not." I said incredulously. "You're Miss Goldenweek. What are you talking about? Who the heck is the Magical Paintbrush Fairy? You're _obviously_ Miss Goldenweek. You look exactly like her."

"No I'm not, I'm the Magical Paintbrush Fairy." Miss Goldenweek insisted, brandishing her paintbrush again.

"Yeah, sure." I said. "The Magical Paintbrush Fairy. How can you say you're a fairy if you don't even have wings?"

"I do too!" she said, turning to reveal a pair of fluffy, plastic clip-on wings.

"You've got to be kidding me." I said, rolling my eyes. "I wore wings like those on Halloween when I was five."

"Are you going to listen to what I have to say, or what?" she said, continuing to wave the paintbrush around like a baton.

"Sure, whatever." I laughed, leaning back in my bed. "Wow, you know you've been reading way too much One Piece when you dream that Miss Goldenweek shows up in your room claiming that she's the "Magical Paintbrush Fairy."

"As I was saying," Miss Goldenweek said, now eating a rice cracker. "I've been watching you these past couple days, watching you draw."

"I didn't know Miss Goldenweek was such a stalker." I said.

"And I have watched you slave away over a picture you are helplessly in love with." she continued, talking over me. "I must say, it makes such a nice change to find a fangirl of such an obscure character. I mean there are so many fangirls of Luffy, and Ace, and Zoro, and Sanji, no one thinks creatively anymore! It's a refreshing change to learn that there are actually fangirls of such awful characters."

"Excuse me?" I said, glaring at her.

"Oh, sorry." said Miss Goldenweek, looking slightly embarrassed. "It just slipped out."

"That's okay, I'm used to it." I muttered, thinking of the "One Piece Otaku Fangirl Club." "And you claim you're able to bring my picture to life? That's just torturing me because I know this is a dream! All I wanted was to have a nice _lemon_ dream about him and -"

"I'm sorry, what was that?'" asked Miss Goldenweek, cutting me off and looking rather perturbed. "You want to dream about lemons? Why on earth do you want to dream about fruit?"

I gave her an odd look.

"You know…_lemons?_" I said, laying a delicate stress on the word.

"Yes, like the yellow fruit." said Miss Goldenweek placidly.

"No, _not_ like the fruit." I said. "Like, _lemons_ in writing? You know, when something has _lemons_ in it that means it's a little…um….how do I put this…risqué?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about." said Miss Goldenweek. "Lemons are a yellow fruit. Miss Valentine wears them on her dresses."

"Aha! So you _are_ Miss Goldenweek! You admit you know Miss Valentine!"

Miss Goldenweek look a little annoyed, which was OOC for her.

"Well, as I was saying," I continued, somewhat agitated. "All I wanted was to have a nice _lemon _dream about him, and somehow I'm dreaming that you show up pretending that you're some "Magical-Paintbrush-Fairy" and that you're going to bring my drawing to life! But when I wake up, my drawing's still going to be a drawing and I'll still be miserable and wishing that he was real!"

"I'm sorry your simple mind is so confused." said Miss Goldenweek, looking unfazed by my agitated outburst. "You can believe what you want, but I do have the power to bring your character to you, using your drawing as a 'portal' of sorts. You're not the first fangirl I've done this for."

"A portal?" I said. "That is totally cliché. It's out of a bad fanfiction. And what about fanboys? Or are you feminist or something."

"Oh no, I've done this for fanboys too."

"They probably all draw inappropriate pictures of Kalifa and hentai." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Yes, that's about the size of it." said Miss Goldenweek. "It's always rather amusing when they wake up in the morning and find the Kalifa is currently occupying the bathtub only the bubbles aren't exactly "appropriately" arranged."

"I didn't need to know that!" I said. "Bad mental images! And how can you know what hentai is but not know what _lemons _are?"

"But I do know what lemons are." said Miss Goldenweek. "Please don't bring up this silly argument again. I told you, lemons are a yellow fruit. I don't know why you'd think they would be anything else."

"Okay fine." I sighed. "So you say you're gonna bring my favorite character here using my drawing of him. Cool. That's great. This dream will make a good fanfiction some day. Thanks for giving me the idea. Maybe I'll actually get some reviews. Now go back to Spiders café and make some chocolate pastries with Miss Valentine, okay? And then you can bring some along next time I happen dream about you, so we can have a tea party. Better yet, Miss Valentine could show up as "The Magical Lemon Fairy" or something ridiculous like that."

Miss Goldenweek, who always seemed to be one of the more level-headed and calm characters of One Piece who showed little reaction to whatever the situation, looked like she was pretty pissed off.

"Whoa, you don't need to go so OOC." I said, taken aback. "That's not cool."

"Do you want me to bring your fan art to life, or not?" she said, viciously biting off a piece of her rice cracker.

I yawned melodramatically, knowing whatever I said to the incarnation in my dream that my picture would still be a picture in the morning.

"Sure. Go right ahead." I said. "Just do one thing for me. When you get back to Spider's Café, ask Miss Valentine what lemons _really_ are."

* * *

"Hey you, are you awake?"

"Huh?"

"There's something I need to tell you."

"Who the hell are you? Get out of my room before I hurt you."

"You can't hurt me. I'm the Magical Paintbrush Fairy."

"What the hell?"

"I said, I'm The Magical Paintbrush Fairy."

"You look like that girl I read about who was involved in that organization that was going to take over Alabasta, and then turned up on Kyuuka Island. Didn't you break a ton of criminals out of prison or something? If you're an escaped convict don't think I won't turn you in."

"You couldn't turn me in without getting arrested yourself. You're pirate. But that's beside the point. Like I said, I am The Magical Paintbrush Fairy and I -"

"That is the absolute stupidest thing I've ever heard. Get out before I beat you up."

"It's very rude to interrupt people."

"Do you think I care? Go bother the captain or someone else, I want to sleep. How'd you get in here anyway?"

"That doesn't matter; don't you want to know what I have to tell you?"

"No."

"It's very important. It won't take long."

"What part of 'no' don't you understand?"

"How about a cup of tea while I explain things?"

"_Tea_? You expect someone like _me_ to drink _tea?_ What the hell do you think I am, some sort of sophisticated Marine officer in the middle of a conference? Get the hell out of here!"

"I have rice crackers too."

"You just won't go away, will you?"

"No."

"Is this a dream? Because it's becoming an exceptionally agitating dream."

"No."

"I really don't believe you."

"You don't have to."

"Alright fine. What are you supposed to tell me?"

"Someone is wishing for you."

* * *

I woke up the next morning, the dream still oddly fresh in my mind.

"The Magical Paintbrush Fairy." I muttered incredulously to myself, shaking my head. "It really would make a good fanfiction someday. Anyway, it sure beats that dream about trying to a whole swallow pineapple all at once.

"Who the hell in their right mind would try to eat an entire pineapple at once?"

I froze. I knew that voice. I knew that beautiful vibration of sound through vocal chords. How many times had I watched that episode, and listened so intently to each word? It was…

_His_ voice.

I slowly turned around. There he was. He was sitting at the opposite end of the bed. His body, his hair, his features, his eyes…

I screamed.

I screamed bloody murder.

And then I fainted.

* * *

**Heehee! Anyone have any ideas of who he is? (Like I said, you're not allowed to guess if you've read any of my other stories.) Note about the swallowing pineapple dream, I personally have experienced that dream and thought it would be amusing add. It has also been referenced in another of my stories. Go ahead, review, or flame me for not liking Roy Mustang and finding Zoro and Sanji boring. (Oh, just you wait until next chapter all you Zoro-fangirls!) Please review! **


	2. In Which There is a Flashback

**I appreciate everyone who made their guesses about who Grace's favorite character was, but unfortunately no one came anywhere close. This chapter makes it pretty obvious who he is, so you'll know what's coming by the time Grace says his name. Hopefully, no one is mad at my choice in characters, and you'll still want to keep reading. And by the way, the bit about the hermit crab and the goldfish comes from personal experience. I'm not kidding. **

**I don't own One Piece, but I do own Grace, seeing as I spent over a year working on her character development, and I'm still not sure she was ready for her first fanfic debut.**

* * *

I remember when I first encountered him. The first time, _ever_. It was such a glorious and magical day. Back when the grand story of One Piece had just begun. He had just been standing there, so casually almost aloof, in the back shadows of the panel.

My first thought had been…_Lemons_.

Okay not really.

My first thought had been more like, "_What is this gorgeous man with gorgeous hair and a gorgeous body doing just standing off in the background?"_

"Gorgeous" had seemed to be the only adjective on my mind could come up with at the time.

I had stared inquisitively at his picture, taking every little factor of his person. His dark eyes, his cool, calculating demeanor, his absolutely beautiful hair, long and shiny, and his very stylish clothes.

_Then_ my mind started filling up with _lemons_.

(Pay no attention to my overactive and occasionally perverted imagination. It sticks odd thoughts in my head very often, which you will see more of.)

Anyway, I wondered why he was simply lurking in the background. Perhaps he was shy, one of those "dark and troubled poets." Ah yes, that seemed to suit him. A dark and troubled poet. He was totally my type.

I kept reading. He did nothing. I was worried that I wouldn't get to see more of him, and that he was to be confined to the shadows of his one panel of glory, to remain simply as a background character.

But then he came back! He stepped out of the shadows all mysteriously and nonchalant, and actually said stuff! And then he started doing these awesome stunts…oh it was so amazing! Maybe he'd become a main character! The prospect of it thrilled me. And then there was a whole page of him! A whole page! With one of those nifty little boxes in the corner that said his name and who he was!

I now knew his name! Three glorious syllables that sounded exotic and erotic all at once. Now I was truly in love.

And then he disappeared again. His grand entrance had been for nothing. And then there was a big explosion and a building blew up. (It was Luffy's fault…no surprises there.) This terrified me. I hadn't yet learned the "No-one-dies-in-One-Piece-except-in-flashbacks" rule. What if he had been incinerated? Consumed by the flames, or crushed under a massive chunk of building?

No! He was alive! He emerged from the wreckage unscathed! Not one bit of his muscular body had been marred! My love was indestructible! I breathed a sigh relief.

And then, I realized he was going to fight.

I couldn't believe it! He got a fight sequence!

He had to win. He had to be at _least _ten times stronger than that wannabe punk guy with the green hair and earrings who was going to fight him. Not to mention ten times _sexier_. I mean, earrings on guys? Please. One is okay, but three gold dangly things are just plain girly. And green hair? Yeah, I know this is manga, and people can therefore have whatever hair color they want, (according to the Laws of Anime) but _green_?" Come on people. Green might okay for grass, and seaweed, and the slimy trails that slugs leave behind, and that stuff that congeals on the inside fish tanks when you don't clean them, but hair? No.

What was that swordsman guy's name anyway? Oh yeah, it was Zoro. I had forgotten because he hadn't left much of an impression on me. So far all he'd done was act emo while he was tied to a pole and eat a bunch of rice balls that were mostly dirt. Yeah, not that impressive. But I didn't really care about him because I knew my character would win.

Oh, and he fought so well! He was ruthless, and had no objections to playing dirty. Fair play? Yeah right. All he wanted to do was win, and he'd use any means he wanted to. I loved it! I liked a man with a dark side.

I could just imagine "Battle without Honor or Humanity" playing in the background. Where was my i-pod to provide violent atmospheric music when I needed it?

Honor and humanity meant _nothing_ to him.

Then after several pages of intense combat, with some killer moves on the part of my favorite character, swordsman guy announced that he was tired.

I laughed in triumph. Ha! He had admitted defeat! I knew my character would have won from the start! There had been no competition! His looks were enough to beat that swordsman guy any day.

Oh, he wasn't tired of fighting. He was tired of my character, it would seem.

I think that kind of pissed my character off.

And then, he crossed into this fancy pose with his three swords and yelled something like, "ONIGIRI!"

Onigiri? What the hell? Who yells about rice balls when they attack someone? Was he gonna like, chuck rice balls at my character or something? That's just lame.

I then read the little footnote and saw that it actually meant. "Demon Slash."

That didn't sound too good.

No sooner had I read the footnote when I saw my character with blood gushing out of his chest collapse to the ground.

I screamed.

I screamed bloody murder.

And then I cried.

I didn't just cry. I sobbed. I wailed.

I cried harder than I think I ever have in my entire life.

I cried harder then when I first saw "Titanic."

I cried harder than when my hermit crab died because my other hermit killed it.

I cried harder than when Mom promised to bury my hermit crab in the backyard, but then two months later when I had gone to get a Popsicle out of the freezer I found a little box that I just had to open, and inside was my dead hermit crab frozen inside, along with my dead goldfish from two years ago. (No kidding.)

I could not be consoled. He was dead. I continued to cry, and sob, and wail.

And then the little old librarian came over and told me get a hold of myself or she'd kick me out for disturbing the patrons.

I abandoned the library computer, and walked home in desolate remorse.

He was dead. He'd had fifteen minutes of fame in battle before his soul was prematurely ripped from his body.

I continued to cry, until my mascara and all my eye makeup washed off and poured down my face and into my mouth and it tasted really bad, so then I forced myself to stop because I didn't want to die from cosmetic poisoning.

Then my friend Mackenzie called me.

"So, how have you liked reading One Piece?" she asked, as she had been the one who had recommended it to me the other day. "Isn't it great?"

"No. I hate it."

"You hate it? Why Grace? You love pirates and manga, and -"

"MY FAVORITE CHARACTER JUST GOT KILLED!" I screamed into the phone. "I'M IN A STATE OF MOURNING!"

There was a considerable pause at the other end.

"Grace, my ears are bleeding." said Mackenzie.

"Sorry." I muttered. "He was just, so cool, and I -"

"Don't tell me you favorite character was Higuma." Mackenzie said incredulously. "You only just started reading. And so far, he should have been the only significant person that's died. Please don't tell me he was your favorite character."

"Was he that mountain guy at the beginning?" I asked. "I don't fall for tacky men like him. I have better taste than that."

"I would hope so." said Mackenzie, sounding relived. "Just a general rule for you Grace, no one dies in One Piece, except in flashbacks, and except for Marines because they get killed all the time. But they don't count because no one cares about them anyway."

"That's not true!" I wailed. "The swordsman guy with the ugly green hair and the stupid earrings killed my favorite character!"

"Zoro killed your favorite character?" said Mackenzie. "Zoro shouldn't have killed anyone yet, except for Helmeppo's dog, which was in a one-panel flashback. _Please _don't tell me that the dog was your favorite character. I mean, I know you love animals and all Grace, but I think that's taking it just a bit too far and -"

"No." I said cutting her off, rather agitated now.

"Don't tell me it was Captain Morgan." Mackenzie proceeded to ask. "He's not actually dead though, but seriously Grace, of all the characters to pick, Captain Morgan, there are a lot better characters than him, and -."

"NO!" I said. "I finished that part already! I-"

"Then no one else should have died!" said Mackenzie. "How far are you?"

"Up to the part where he got killed."

"Oh, that's really descriptive." she said sarcastically. "The part where he got killed. What part is that exactly?"

"It's not funny!" I wailed. "Stop making fun of my TRAGEDY!"

"Well would you mind telling me who your favorite character _was_, so I can verify whether or not he's actually dead?" she said, impatiently.

So I told her. There was dead silence on the other end.

"Wow, and here I was afraid that your favorite character was Helmeppo's dog or Captain Morgan." said Mackenzie finally, clearly trying hard not to laugh. "I thought you said you didn't fall for tacky men, Grace."

I hung up, my hand twitching against the phone.

About 30 seconds later, she called back.

"What do want?" I yelled. "Go character-bash someone else! Leave me to mourn in peace!"

"I only wanted to tell you that he's not dead." said Mackenzie.

"What?" I gasped. Then she hung up.

As ticked off as I was at her, I couldn't believe it. I felt as though a large bubble was growing in my stomach and was about to explode, along with the rest of my internal organs.

_He was alive!_

Hah! Take that Mr. Fancy-Swordsman guy! It's gonna take a lot more than you and your stupid swords and your rice balls to take my guy down! Oh yeah!

That had been the beginning of my love. It had blossomed every since. I didn't care I was the fangirl of a character no one held any appreciation for. But it wasn't like he never showed up again! He got to star in his own side story! Okay, well maybe he didn't exactly _star_ in it, but he was in eleven out of the 28 pages! That's 39 percent! Well, okay, in one of the pages you couldn't really see him, he was a little speck on standing on a cliff in the distance, but it still counts! And since then, he's made _two_ more reappearances! And…I'm still waiting for him to make another.

But I didn't care. I was still in love.

And as I groggily opened my eyes, my head throbbing slightly as I had just fainted from shock, I sat up in my bed and looked where he had been.

He was still there.

"Y-Y-You're….C-Ca-Ca-" I tried to say, shaking as I gaped at him.

He sighed, looking rather annoyed.

"Great, I get a fangirl who stutters." he said, rolling his eyes. "First you pass out on me and now you can't even manage to say my name. Just spit it out, it's not that hard."

I just could only stare, unable to force out the rest of his name.

"For god's sake, it's only my name." he said. "Get a grip on yourself. It's just three syllables, it's not like I'm Donquixote Doflamingo or someone else with an insanely complicated name."

I swallowed, resisting the urge to pass out again.

"Y-You're Cabaji. Cabaji the Acrobat." I managed to say, voice barely audible.

"Knew we'd get there eventually." he said, looking exceptionally irritated, but at least satisfied I had managed to speak two full sentences. "And so I'm told, _you_ are my fangirl."


	3. In Which There is Toast

**Hi there! Chapter three! I hope everyone had a great Halloween last Friday. ( I went as Perona, and of course no one knew who I was…people thought I was the Queen of Hearts gone wrong…) **

**Wow, chapter three already! I'd like to let everyone know, that whether any you think this makes sense or not, Cabaji's favorite food is…toast. It was something I decided a long time ago while writing one of my other stories, because it just seemed to make sense with his character. (To me at least.) So yeah, it's weird, but when I write about him, Cabaji loves toast. **

**Apologies to LittleKuriboh for using his "Super-Special-Awesome" phrase exactly five times. **

**And I don't own One Piece. If I did…well…we won't go there. **

* * *

I just sort of stared at him. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do or say. I mean sure, I was madly in love with this guy, but what are you supposed to do when a guy who's _not supposed to be real_ shows up in your bedroom, and casually addresses you as his…_fangirl_?

"Well," Cabaji said finally. "Are you or not? I better not have gotten stuck with the wrong person or something, 'cause otherwise I don't intend to stay around. I have way better things to do"

"No." I said quickly. "I-I'm your fangirl. I'm Grace."

I was overcome with emotion. I launched myself across the bed and threw my arms around him.

"You are so amazing!" I sobbed. "You're my favorite character! I love you so much! You have no idea how much I-"

"Oh my god! Get off me!" he yelled, shoving me away. I retreated.

"I'm sorry." I murmured timidly.

"Don't…touch me. _Please_." said Cabaji, looking at me as if I had a highly contagious disease.

"I'm sorry." I repeated.

"Just…_don't_ do it again." he said, glowering.

"I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that! You've told me three times already!"

"I'm sor-"

"Don't you dare say you're sorry for saying you're sorry or I'll hit you."

I was about to apologize again, but swallowed it.

"Good." said Cabaji. "You've learned. Right, so you're name's Grace?"

I nodded.

"I'm not going to ever remember that." said Cabaji. "I'll just call you whatever I feel like."

I nodded, not really caring what he called me so long he was willing to talk to me.

"So who was that weird girl?" he said.

"What weird girl?" I asked. "You mean Miss Goldenweek?"

"No, she said she was 'The Magical Paintbrush Fairy' or something like that." said Cabaji. "She had massive braids in her hair and a paintbrush. She did look like some girl who broke a bunch of criminals out of Impel Down though."

"That would be Miss Goldenweek." I said.

"What sort of name is that?" asked Cabaji, looking perturbed. "Who the hell names their kid after a holiday?"

"Well it's not her real name, it's her codename." I said, "She used to be like, a secret agent or an assassin, or something…I don't really remember." I was still too stunned to try and recall anything about Baroque Works or Little Garden.

"An assassin, yeah right." said Cabaji, rolling his eyes. "Well I suppose Miss Goldenweek is a better name than 'The Magical Paintbrush Fairy.' I feel like an idiot just saying it."

"Appearances can be deceiving." I said amiably. "But that's Miss Goldenweek, for you."

I was still completely in shock. Sitting inches from me was Cabaji the Acrobat, the guy who'd I'd had a crush on for years, and who _wasn't supposed to be real._ And yet, here he was, having a pleasant conversation about, Miss Goldenweek, of all people.

I looked over at the wall where I had hung my drawing. The page was blank.

"_I have the power to bring your character to you, using your drawing as a 'portal' of sorts."_

It hadn't been a dream. Miss Goldenweek had done the impossible.

This was crazy! How was this possible? It was straight out of a really bad fanfiction, one of those, OC pairings where someone from One Piece turns up in the real world, or vice versa. It was a bad cliché. I mean a portal? Come on. But why was it happening to me?

"_You're not the first fangirl I've done this for."_

Perhaps some of those OC stories had more truth behind them than it would seem. But usually in those fanfictions there's always some sort of random portal that pops up out of nowhere and everyone jumps in. The explanations of 'how it really happened' usually seemed to lack a little something…

For example…

_"Wow everyone!" yelled Luffy. "Look! A super-special-awesome- portal-thingy! Let's jump in!"_

_"Yeah! This will be so much fun!" cried Nami. "And I'm not being OOC at all! Who needs common sense? And who cares what's on the other side! Let's just jump in! I love super-special-awesome- portal-thingies!"_

_"Me too!" said Robin happily. "I love randomly jumping into portals that appear out of nowhere. It's sort of like a hobby of mine. Last week I jumped into four! And please note that I'm totally in character."_

_"I don't care where the portal goes so long as there's cola!" said Franky. "We can go through as many super-special-awesome- portal-thingies as we want so long as there's cola on the other side!"_

_"And hot women!" cried Sanji. _

_"YAY! MAGIC PORTALS!_

_The Straw Hat crew all jumped into the portal._

_"Wow, I love One Piece so much. Zoro is so hot." said a random girl named Sally who was walking down the street and talking to herself. "OMG. What is that mysterious shiny blue light in the sky? It looks like a super-special-awesome- portal-thingy."_

_Suddenly the Straw Hat pirates fell out of the sky._

_"OMG! You guys are like, the Straw Hat pirates!" Sally cried. _

_"Hey, lets all make friends with this random girl here." said Luffy, grinning._

_"Yeah, who cares what that whole magic super-special-awesome- portal-thingy was." said Nami shrugging._

_"Yeah, who cares where we are." said Sanji._

_"And who cares how this girl knows who we are." said Usopp._

_"I don't care where we are so long as there's cola." said Franky. "SUPER!"_

_"Yeah, who needs explanations." said Robin. _

_"Everyone loves plot holes!" chimed in Chopper and Brook._

_"ZORO I LOVE YOU!" yelled Sally._

_"That's great. I love you too." said Zoro. "Even though I don't even know who you are or where I am and I just fell out of the sky. But that's okay. We'll overlook that minor detail and fall in love anyway."_

Nothing like those "Straw Hats get sucked into our world" stories. They're classics.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" said Cabaji, jolting me out of my reverie. "What do you do around here?"

"Ummm….." I said, not sure how to respond.

"Yeah, _that_ sounds like loads of fun. Really entertaining." he said sarcastically. "Let's do _ummm._"

I laughed, not at all offended by his sarcasm.

"Umm…I can make breakfast." I suggested tentatively.

"Really? Can you make toast?" Cabaji asked eagerly. "Have you got a toaster?"

"Uh, yeah." I said, perturbed. "You really like toast or something?"

"I _love_ toast!" said Cabaji eagerly. "But I haven't had it for ages!"

"Why?"

"Alvida broke the toaster last month. _And_ the microwave. That woman eats too much. I don't know how she stays so thin. Seriously, she'll eat anything. She's crazy."

"She, um…must have high metabolism." I said innocently, wondering if Cabaji was oblivious to Alvida's "back story" before she joined up with them. "Right then, I can make toast."

So I walked downstairs to the kitchen, with Cabaji behind me looking around at the interior of my house.

"Don't you have parents or something?" he said.

"They're on vacation at the moment." I said, pulling out the toaster.

"Hah! So they abandoned you, did they?" laughed Cabaji.

"No, they'll be back." I said.

"Ha! That's a good one." Cabaji continued to laugh. "That's exactly what _my_ parents told me. _'We'll be back, don't worry.'_ I waited three weeks until I ran out of stuff to eat and got sick of waiting."

I stared at him in horror.

"What did you do?" I said, stunned he could talk about such a subject so lightly.

"What every kid does." he said nonchalantly, as though this should be common knowledge to me. "I ran away to join the circus."

"You were, um…obviously successful." I said, sticking bread into the toaster.

"Of course I was." Cabaji said happily. "I now have an excellent and profitable career."

"You're a pirate/acrobat." I said.

"My idea of an excellent and profitable career." he said, as though this were obvious.

"Right then." I said, as the toast popped out of the toast with that little "_ding"_ noise.

I pulled the butter and jam out of the fridge and set them on the table.

"Stick whatever you want on it." I said. "There's jelly and fake butter".

"I didn't know there was such a thing as fake butter." Cabaji said, spooning half of the jam jar onto one slice of toast.

"It's called margarine. It's supposed to be better for you, or so I'm told." I said, shrugging.

"Wow, you eat weird things."

We just sort of sat in silence after that. I just kind of stared at him, while he happily ate the toast, and I chewed my lip, which was a nervous habit of mine when I wasn't sure what to do.

Eventually Cabaji looked up at me.

"What are you doing?" he said, giving me a funny look.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Chewing my lip?"

"Yeah. It looks weird."

"It's just a bad habit of mine."

"Don't do it." he said, very seriously. "It's unattractive. It looks likes you're eating your face."

"Oh." I said, quickly stopping.

"Okay then, so now what?" he said, nonchalantly. I realized he had just eaten the entire plate of toast I like, less than five minutes.

"You just ate all that toast." I said, disbelieving.

"Yeah, I like carbs." he said casually, not catching my hint. "I eat a lot of carbs actually. I just work them all off."

Then he caught on.

"Oh." he said somewhat guiltily. "Did you, want a piece of toast?"

"No, no." I said quickly. "It's fine. I'll just have some yogurt."

"Can I make more toast?"

"You honestly want more?" I said, incredulously. How was I supposed to continue to feed him at this rate?

"Uh, yeah."

"That uh…that's fine then." I said, retrieving the yogurt from the fridge. "Make as much toast as you like. I'm going to take a shower."

I'm one of those people who desperately needs a shower of a morning. I look like hell otherwise, and besides, I wanted Cabaji to see me in something other than my pajamas and my just-got-out-of-bed hair. I usually look like Miss Doublefinger on a very bad hair day with lots of static, except my hair isn't blue. I once went to sleep with gel in my hair and woke up looking like Gendastu. Not attractive.

"Okay then, fangirl-chan." Cabaji said, shoving bread into the toaster. "I'm going to make more toast."

_Fangirl-chan?_


	4. In Which There is Techno Music

**Sorry for the late update! Damn, I really picked a bad time to start uploading this fic, because I simply do not have the time to upload my chapters between schoolwork and waaay too many extracurricular activities. **

**There are a lot of things I don't own in this chapter, apart from not owning One Piece itself. I do not own the songs "Barbie Girl" or "It's Raining Men." I do not own Cirque du Soleil, which by the way, if you don't know, is the greatest acrobatic circus throughout all of Canada, and the whole world, and is going to end up becoming kind of important throughout the story, so remember it. And I don't own Monopoly. ****I think that covers everything! Enjoy! **

**And by the way, to the person who reviewed under "No Account" (I would have replied only you didn't leave an email address) to answer your question, I would just like to say that**_** I**_** happen to "fangirl" Cabaji. I enjoy the way you used 'fangirl' as a verb. The only character I fangirl more than Cabaji is Alvida, but this story is not about her, so there you go, to answer your question. **

* * *

I used up all the hot water, trying to mull over the situation. I did my best thinking in the shower, and my best singing, but somehow I didn't Cabaji would exactly enjoy listening to me sing _"Barbie Girl"_ or _"It's Raining Men"_ from the shower.

How was this possible? What was I supposed to tell my parents?

"_Hi Mom, Dad! Great to see you! Guess who stopped in for a visit? You remember cousin Chad don't you? Don't you? Cousin Chad! Come on, you know him! He was at last year's family reunion, don't you remember…what's that Mom? Oh, right. We didn't have a family reunion last year. Heh heh…right."_

Maybe it would be better if they had actually abandoned me.

The steady "_ding_" of the toaster from the kitchen told me I would definitely need to buy more bread.

I emerged from the shower in a cloud of steam. I had elaborately curled my hair, worn my most flattering clothes, and matched everything perfectly from my earrings to my eye shadow. I looked radiant, or at least I _felt_ radiant.

My preparations were wasted on Cabaji however. He was in the living room doing what looked like a terrible painful mix of yoga, aerobics and tai chi. He had taken off his scarf and cloak, and both his feet behind his head and was balancing on one arm. It looked kind of disturbing.

"What are you doing?" I gasped.

"Oh hello fangirl-chan." he said nonchalantly. "I'm working out. You know, working off all those carbs from the toast."

"It's Grace." I said, gaping at him. "You look like you're trying to rip yourself in half."

"Good, then I'm doing it right." he said. "Most acrobats are contortionists too, and if we don't practice we lose our flexibility."

"I hardly think you need to be worried about losing your flexibility." I said, as he lay on his stomach and touched his shoulders with his feet.

"Right then, I'm done." he announced, springing back to his feet, as I not tried to gape at his exposed chest. He replaced his cloak and his scarf.

"Can I take a shower or something?" he added, nonchalantly. "I hate getting all sweaty, and I need to do my hair."

I had just gotten _out_ of the shower, and had wanted to spend some time with him, so as to…I dunno… get to know him a little better? But then again, I wanted him to be happy, so I told him to go ahead and take a shower.

He ended up taking an excessively long shower, and then proceeded to ask if he could borrow my many hair products so as to properly style his hair.

"Wow, this is great." he said, rubbing quantities of mousse through his long black hair. "Usually I have to steal Alvida's hair stuff. I just blame it on Mohji, but seriously, your blow drier is a lot nicer than Alvida's. And she doesn't have a straightening iron."

What can I say? I love guys who take care of their hair.

"So, now what are we supposed to do?" he asked, once he was satisfied with his hair, which was about forty-five minutes later. Even I don't take that much time to do my hair.

"Umm…" I said, now rather unsure as to how I was supposed to entertain Cabaji.

"As I said, before, _that_ sounds like so much fun." said Cabaji sarcastically.

"I could show you around." I suggested timidly.

"I don't care." he said, and it was obvious from his tone of voice that he really didn't.

The morning was a rather odd state of affairs. I showed Cabaji around the house, while he showed obvious signs of complete disinterest.

"And this is the laundry room."

"What do you do in here? Why are there so many clothes?"

"Because they need to be washed."

"So you wash your clothes in here or something?"

"Uh yeah, that's why it's called a _laundry_ room."

"Well then where's your washboard?"

"What?"

"You know, one of those metal boards with ridges you scrub your clothes on."

"Oh, one of those." I said, realizing that our modern 'washing' technologies were obviously very different. "No, we don't. We just stick it in the washing machine." I gestured the washing machine. "It does the work for us."

Cabaji surveyed the washing machine with sarcastic disbelief, obviously not convinced it was capable of cleaning clothes.

"I take it you must have a washboard on you ship."

"Oh no." said Cabaji shrugging. "Buggy's way too cheap to buy one. So we just use my chest most of the time. I have a washboard chest you know."

"Oh." I said, rather shocked at this statement, and trying not to blush. My overactive imagination provided me with a rather disturbing image of Alvida happily scrubbing various forms of lingerie against Cabaji's chest, while Buggy stood patiently to one side awaiting his turn. I was actually rather jealous that Alvida was allowed to wash lingerie against Cabaji's chest on a regular basis.

I showed him the other various rooms of a typical house, but so far the only interest he had shown had been in the laundry room. Then we came to my room. We hadn't exactly spent a lot of time in there when I first encountered him upon awakening, so I thought I should so it to him "formally."

"And this is my room." I announced, drawing back the beaded curtain.

"We've been in here." said Cabaji, in a bored tone, looking around.

"Not really, we were only in here a few minutes." I said, inching my way over to the DVD shelf and conveniently blocking my various anime titles from view.

Cabaji was staring at the ceiling in vague disinterest.

"Why are there little plastic stars on your ceiling?" he asked.

"They glow in the dark." I said, quickly removing my selections of uncut One Piece from the shelf and shoving them in my closet.

"That's so weird." he said, shaking his head. "_Everything_ here is so weird."

I hoped I wasn't overwhelming him with modern culture.

"What's this?" he asked, picking up an object off my dresser.

"That's my i-pod." I said, glad he was at least amusing himself with my various electronics. Maybe I could get him to play Guitar Hero with me.

"What's it do?

"I plays music."

"You're a liar." he said, glaring at me. "Don't you know it's wrong to lie?"

"No really, it plays music." I said.

"I don't believe you." he said, eyeing the little device.

"Try it and see." I said. "Stick the little plugs in your ears play with the buttons. It'll play music for you."

"Yeah right."

"I'm serious!"

At that moment the phone rang, so I went to go answer it, leaving Cabaji musing skeptically over my i-pod.

"Hi honey!" came my mom's cheery voice from the phone. "How are things going for you?"

_"Well, I drew this picture of this really hot guy, and this girl with a paintbrush came in the middle of the night, and now the guy is real and standing in my room playing with my i-pod."_

"Fine." I said brightly. "Just fine."

"That's good sweetie." said my mom. "Dad and I are having such a good time. We went to go see Cirque du Soleil the other day! You would have loved it!"

It instantly struck me that Cabaji would love to see Cirque du Soleil. He was an acrobat after all, and the acrobats of Cirque du Soleil were the best in the world. I would have to make a phone call to my well-connected French teacher.

"I'm so jealous." I said, conversationally. "I'm glad you two are having a good time."

Cabaji's voice suddenly shouted from my room:

"Holy shit! It DOES play music!"

"What was that?" said my mom, her voice becoming dangerous. "Is there someone in the house with you? Are they using bad language? Are you hiding something Grace?"

"No mom!" I said quickly, and crossing my fingers. "I just left the TV on, that's all."

"You better not be spending all your time watching those trashy Japanese shows yours." said my mom. "Ninjas and pirates and Mafia and all those weapons and drinking and smoking and killing each other. Women spilling out of their clothes and men without their shirts on and long hair. I'm worried about the influence it's having on you Grace. Sex and violence, nothing good will come from it. I don't want you developing an attraction for tacky men like that, it's not proper."

_"Too late mom, I already have. And he's __**not**__ tacky."_

"You worry too much mom." I said soothingly. "I promise that I'm being very…_productive."_

Productive was mom and dad's favorite word. Use it right and you're golden.

"That's good, I'm so glad you're using your time wisely." said my mom, and I could practically hear the pride in her voice that her child was being so "productive."

"I have to go," I said quickly. "I left some uh…cocoa on the stove, and the kettle's whistling."

"Alright then Grace, I'll let you go." said my mom, and I was grateful that my Mom was too dull to have picked up on the fact that it was the middle of the summer and no one in their right mind would be making cocoa. "You dad says hi, hugs and kisses to you Grace! Keep on being productive! I love you!"

"Okay bye." I said quickly, almost throwing the receiver back onto the phone. My mom was so…weird. Not just my mom, my dad too. Them and their "productive-ness."

Cabaji was on my bed, gazing at the i-pod in fascination and pushing the little buttons like a pro.

"This thing is freakin' amazing!" he said. "How the hell does it work?"

"I honestly don't know." I admitted. "I just know it plays music."

"I've got to say though," said Cabaji, pulling one of the little buds out of his ear. "As awesome as this little thing is, the music on it sucks. You should buy a new one with better music."

"What?" I said, somewhat distressed. "You don't like my music?"

"No, it's lame." said Cabaji. "It's all electric and high-pitched and the people have weird voices."

"It's called Techno." I said defensively. "And it's personally my favorite kind of music."

"Well your favorite kind of music sucks." said Cabaji bluntly. "The singers sound like they're on crack and helium."

"I happen to like it." I said defensively. "_I_ think they have nice voices."

"You like weird things." said Cabaji. "I mean, this "Barbie Girl" song, sounds like Alvida and Buggy when they've had too much to drink."

I had sudden and disturbing mental image of Alvida, very drunk and singing Barbie Girl. "_You can touch, you can play…You can brush my hair, Undress me everywhere…"_

Why do I get these random thoughts all the time?

"Oh god, you just had to listen to _that_ song, didn't you?" I said, shaking my head in embarrassment. "Of all the 13,209 songs, you picked that song."

"Well I hit the little button that said "shuffle," 'cause I wanted to see what it did, and the song started playing." said Cabaji innocently. "And it just sounded so freakin' weird I had to keep listening. Oh wow, you have it in French, German, Spanish and Japanese? Finally, a language I recognize."

"No!" I repeated, turning the i-pod off. "We're not listening to that song anymore! Why don't we do something fun, like play a board game?"

Without waiting for his response, I grabbed Cabaji by the wrist and led him downstairs to learn to play Monopoly.

* * *

**OMG! What a dramatic cliffhanger ending! Yeah…next chapter will be slightly more interesting. Cabaji will learn to play Guitar Hero and DDR, and depending on where I decide to cut off the chapter, Grace may take Cabaji to the mall. If you're still reading this story, I'm impressed. I know that it's practically crack. **

**Alvida, I'm sorry for making fun of you. You know I love you, but the thought of you singing Barbie Girl was too much fun to leave out. **


	5. In Which There is Dance Dance Revolution

****

Hi there! I hope everyone had a good holiday season! I am so so sorry for the delay in posting this. But now the holidays are over and I will be able to post more often.

**This chapter is even stranger and more random than the last four, and trust me, you haven't seen anything yet.**

**I don't own One Piece. I wish I did, but I don't. **

* * *

It turned out that Cabaji didn't really enjoy playing board games. It's not like I really expected him to.

But we played through every board game in my room, and never finished any of them. It turned out Cabaji liked to cheat, a lot. It's not like that was a huge surprise or anything, but the problem was that he was just so bad at board games in general that he ended up losing anyway no matter how much he cheated. And then he would just refuse to finish playing because he didn't want to lose.

Eventually, after more swear words fit into one sentence than I have ever heard, and threatening to leave if I made him play any more board games, I opted to show him an alternate form of entertainment.

"This is my PlayStation." I said. "You can play games on it."

"I told you I don't want to play any more of your [_insert a swear word of your choice_] board games!" growled Cabaji. "I'm not some [_insert a different swear word of your choice_] kid you know!"

"But you don't play board games on a PlayStation." I said. "You can play all sorts of different games."

"Like what?" he said, sounding incredibly disinterested.

"Puzzle games, and adventures games, and action games-"

"Action?" said Cabaji, suddenly sounding interested. "You mean like killing people?"

"Ummm…yeah, those kinds of games." I said reluctantly. "There _are_ those kinds of games."

"Can play them?" said Cabaji eagerly. "I want to kill something!"

I had been afraid of this.

"Umm…I don't really own any of those kinds of games." I said, timidly.

"Well that's no fun then." said Cabaji, looking annoyed. "I wanted to hurt something."

"I'm just not a very violent person." I said, apologetically.

"Are you saying _I'm_ a violent person?" said Cabaji, turning on me and glowering.

"No!" I said quickly. "Not at all!"

I opted to teach Cabaji how to play Guitar Hero. It didn't go so well.

"Just press the right colored buttons on the guitar when they get to the end of the screen." I said, handing him the guitar.

"Why the hell would you want to learn how to play this fake guitar as opposed to a real one?" he said, staring at the device skeptically. "I mean, it's not like you can and street perform with this thing. What's the point of developing skills for an instrument that's not even a real instrument?"

"You're failing the song…" I said apprehensively.

"This is lame!" he said, after failing several more songs. "Again I ask you, who would want to learn to play a fake guitar? What's the point in devoting your time into an instrument that's not even legit when you could be learning a real instrument instead?"

"You're just pissed that you've failed every song." I said.

"Well the characters creep me out! Look at that one guy!" Cabaji said, taking his hands off the guitar to point at one of the various background characters with a mohawk and various facial piercings.

"You're missing the chords!" I said. "Don't take your hands of the guitar! Pay attention to the notes!"

"Look at that one guy though!" Cabaji continued. "He looks like he's on drugs! Like he's taken one too many snorts! Seriously, he's thinner than Alvida! He's like a friggin' anorexic! That's disgusting!"

"You're still failing the song…"

After maybe two and a half more songs and several more swear words I won't repeat, I decided to go the alternate route of Dance Dance Revolution.

"It's almost the same thing as Guitar Hero." I said. "Only you're playing with your feet and pressing arrows."

"What the hell is up with the background?"

"Just ignore the background effects. They're really strange. Just focus on the arrows."

"Well who's that person in the middle?"

"You mean your dancer?"

"That chick in the middle with the mini-skirt who dances like a stripper. Am I supposed to do what she does too?"

"No, just follow the arrows! That's all you have to do!"

"Well I don't like her." said Cabaji plaintively. "Her clothes are too small. She needs to wear something besides pants and a bikini top."

This coming from the guy who lives on a ship with Lady Alvida.

So I stuck Cabaji with a male character who happened to be wearing more clothes and let him dance for awhile because he seemed to be enjoying himself. And he turned out to be really good.

Like, _really_ good.

"I naturally acrobatic." he said, while tackling all the hardest songs on the highest levels and breaking all my records. "This is easy for me."

I was a little more than jealous. It had taken me months to learn how to play DDR, and here was Cabaji beating songs on "Challenge Mode" after only a half hour.

By the end of the afternoon he had beaten through nearly every song on all of my versions with top marks. It wasn't fair.

His favorite song to dance to was, (Surprise! Surprise!) "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" off one of newer versions.

"I don't even like the song that much." he stated. "I just like saying the title"

I laughed, despite the fact I was getting owned at my own video games. But as I watched Cabaji happily jump up and down on the dancepad, and the little voice on the games kept announcing "Wow! It's a New Record!" I couldn't remember feeling happier. _He_ was dancing, living, breathing, alive and incarnated in my world. Right next to me. He was real.

It was pretty awesome.

* * *

"So, where am I supposed sleep?"

I had wondered about this. As much as I would have "enjoyed" it, I didn't think it was exactly proper for Cabaji to sleep in my room.

Cabaji ended up sleeping on the fold-out couch in the room next to mine.

I didn't really sleep, I just stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling. This was all too good to be true. Cabaji was living in my house. He was real. It made no sense. Maybe I was still dreaming that dream about Miss Goldenweek (ahem…I mean the, er…Magical Paintbrush Fairy) and my entire day with Cabaji had simply been part of the dream, and I would wake up to find drawing exactly as it had been, my DDR scores still mediocre, and the fold-out couch empty.

I heard odd muttering from Cabaji's room. I hadn't expected him to talk in his sleep.

I slowly crept out of bed and poked my head in. Cabaji was sprawled across the couch with an insipid smile on his face.

"No, that tickles…please…please stop it, now give me back my scarf…that's not fair…you're not playing fair…heh…but then again…who am I to play fair?"

_Oh my. _

It would seem I was not the only one afflicted by lemons in my dreams.

Who could he possibly be thinking of? Oh god no…surely not…_Alvida?_ I mean, they are on the same ship together, and they're probably friends, and…oh god. She was his nakama, wasn't she?

Now feeling rather dispirited by thought I now faced competition from "The Fairest Maiden on all the Seas," who I could never hope to live up to, and who would probably crush me with her mace, I returned to my bedroom, and hoped to dream some lemons of my own.

I didn't. Instead I experienced the reoccurring event of trying to eat an entire pineapple at once.

I woke up early and went downstairs to take my morning shower and make toast. I would have to buy more bread today for certain. Cabaji staggered downstairs about a half hour later.

"You made toast, fangirl-chan." he said sleepily.

"It's Grace." I said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Not really." he said.

"Oh, um…why not?" I asked, as innocent as possible.

"I had disturbing dreams." he said.

"Oh, whatever about?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, but deciding not to voice my suspicions about a one certain of his shipmates.

"You." said Cabaji, relieving me of the jam jar and pouring it all over the toast.

I gaped at him.

"Me?" I said, completely dumbfounded. He had been dreaming about _me?_

"Yes fangirl-chan, I find you _very_ disturbing." said Cabaji, taking a bite of toast.

Was that a complement or not?

"Oh." I said, still completely shocked. I decided it probably wasn't the best idea to let him know I'd overheard him. But did that mean, Cabaji…_liked_ me? Or was it just a dream he had no control over. Still, I was glad my suspicions were ungrounded that I wouldn't have to face Lady Alvida and her massive club in order to win Cabaji.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Cabaji asked, jolting me out of my reverie.

"I have some ideas."

* * *

**What are Grace's ideas? How much more random can she make this story? Review and find out! **


	6. In Which There is Shopping

**I'm back! I've been really busy with mid-year semester exams, studying and final projects and such, but now they're over so I can be posting a lot more often! (For my Media Studies final project about Disc Jockeys I actually drew a picture of Cabaji as a DJ. Of course, no one really got it, everyone just thought he was just some guy with black hair and a scarf who happened to be mixing records on my poster.) **

**Because you've been great and waiting so long for an update this is an extra long chapter.**

**Apologies to Twilight fangirls. Like I said, loads of stuff gets bashed in this fic, and before this chapter is over I'll have made a jab at the popularity of vampires in literature. **

**I don't own One Piece. But I'm okay with that because I don't have the talent or the time to draw a manga like that once a week when I can barely keep up with my own fics. **

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me." said Cabaji, glaring at our surroundings. "You took me to a mall."

Okay, so it was kind of a dumb decision on my part.

I had thought that since Cabaji was kind of on the metrosexual side he might enjoy shopping. I was wrong.

"Just to kind of show you around." I said, chewing my lip anxiously. "You know, some of the stuff around town."

"A mall." said Cabaji, in absolute disgust and disinterest. "If you try to make me try on any clothes, I will seriously break your arm, fangirl-chan."

"It's Grace."

"Stop chewing your lip already! I told you before, it looks like you're eating your face."

"Sorry."

So we walked around the mall. It was really more to show him around than to buy anything. People gave us really funny looks, but I ignored them, while Cabaji didn't really seem to notice. Cabaji obviously didn't like large groups of people though. He was all downcast and withdrawn with his hair in his face. The whole "Dark and Troubled Poet" look.

The first thing I tried to make Cabaji do was to get into an instant photo booth and take a picture with me. It turned out however that Cabaji didn't exactly like being shoved into small spaces, much less if I was stuck in the small with him.

"Fangirl-chan, can't you move over? Your boob is in my face."

"Sorry about that. I know they're kind of big."

"Yeah, I noticed that."

"Sorry."

"Do we _really_ have to do this? I'm claustrophobic fangirl-chan!"

"I think you're just making that up. And it's Grace."

"No seriously fangirl-chan, I'm claustrophobic. And think about all the dirty things people have probably done in here."

"That's disgusting Cabaji."

"I mean it! Two people squeeze themselves into this little box, and who knows what they'd do! What is the point of this little box anyway?"

"Never mind." I said, pulling Cabaji out of the photo booth, not wanting to be in there anymore now that my overactive imagination had zoomed into hyperdrive and was providing me with some high quality _lemons_ and other horrifying things that could happen in an instant-photo booth.

"I hate books." said Cabaji defiantly as we entered a bookstore

"I wouldn't say that too loudly in here." I cautioned timidly, while people glared at us.

"Books are for nerds." said Cabaji, looking around at the stacks with disinterest and boredom.

"So you're saying I'm a nerd?"

"Yes." said Cabaji without any hesitation whatsoever.

"Thanks." I said rolling my eyes. "We won't stay long, I just want to browse."

So I looked though the "teen lit" and "young adult" section, but it was impossible to find anything that wasn't about angst and vampires. Why is everyone writing about angst and vampires all of a sudden? Damn, I hate vampires. Acrobats are way sexier than vampires any day.

Then I realized I had lost Cabaji. This was not good. I quickly scanned my surroundings. I did not see him.

Oh god…what if he was in the manga section? Oh please no. What if he had found the---?

"HEY FANGIRL-CHAN!!! LOOK AT THIS!!"

----English translation of One Piece. No doubt volume two. This would take some explaining.

I ran over to the manga section.

"Don't yell, we're in a bookstore." I said, quickly. "People who like books are quiet people."

"Look at this fangirl-chan!"

"Grace."

"Look at this!! I'm on a book!! I'm famous!! How cool is that?"

Some teenage guy about my age clutching a copy of Death Note was gaping at us in terror.

"See!" Cabaji cried enthusiastically, thrusting the volume at the guy. "That's me!! I'm on a book!! Bet you can't say you're on a book!"

"He's a professional cosplayer." I lied quickly. "He takes it very seriously."

The boy just stared from Cabaji to the book and to me, looking like he was about to faint.

"Come on." said to Cabaji, linking my arm through his. "We're leaving. You don't like books. You told me they're for nerds."

"But fangirl-chan--"

"Grace."

"But I wanna buy the book! I'm on it! It's my book! Shouldn't I have rights to it or something?!"

"We can read _exactly_ what is in that book online when we get home, and it won't cost us 8.99." I said, reliving him of the book and shoving it back on the shelf. "Not to mention the translations are better. Oh and that goes for you too." I added, turning to the traumatized boy. "Why waste 8.99 when you can read that volume for free? You can read Death Note online you know."

"Is that legal?" he asked me, tentatively.

"Of course it is." I said, smiling broadly. "It's just like downloading music. One person buys the CD, and he shares all the songs on it with thousands of people over the Internet. Isn't that nice of that person to share his CD?"

"That's illegal."

"No it's not." I said in what I hoped was convincing voice. "How can _sharing_ be illegal? It's the first thing you're taught in preschool. _Share_! So if you can share your music, you can share your manga too. Besides, the translations are better. Online scans won't censor swear words and cleavage."

"I don't believe you." said the boy. "_You_ probably do all sorts of illegal things, especially someone like _you_ who hangs out with cosplayers of characters like _him_."

Again, I was shunned for being his fangirl. I was used to it.

"Fine then." I said shrugging. "Spend 8.99."

"What's a cosplayer anyway?" asked Cabaji skeptically.

The boy gaped at him.

"You're a professional cosplayer, and you don't even know what cosplaying is?" said the boy, looking stunned.

"Never mind, we need to go." I said to the boy, quickly grabbing Cabaji by the arm again and steering him away. "Enjoy your poorly translated and overpriced manga!"

The boy stared after us, but I saw him stick the volume back on the shelf.

"That's not fair fangirl-chan!" said Cabaji as we left the bookstore. "I was on that book! I wanted to buy it!"

"It's _Grace_!" I said, pulling him along. "And I promise you we will read exactly what is in that book when we get home."

I wondered how on earth I was supposed to explain that the entire story of One Piece was somehow a manga, and Cabaji was a character in it, but he was _here_, in my world, which _wasn't_ the world of One Piece, maybe was it some sort of alternate universe….oh god, I didn't even understand it.

Cabaji slipped back into his whole "dark and troubled" state, because now he was probably ticked about not being able to buy his book.

"Hey, let's go in _there_!" said Cabaji eagerly, pointing at a store. "It looks cool."

Oh great. He wanted to go into the punk/goth/emo store. You know, where all the people who are punk/goth/emo go and buy their clothes. The store where you walk in and _everybody_ looks dark and troubled, and they treat you weird if you're wearing any sort of bright color like…pink, and everyone has at least twelve or more facial piercings and probably more in places you can't see, and really don't want to see anyway.

I have nothing against goth/punk/emo stores, or the people who go there. I just feel rather…out of place, if you know what I mean. The last time I went there to buy my friend Mackenzie a present no one would help me because I was wearing bright yellow. Heaven forbid I wear a cheery color like yellow in the summer time.

"Are you sure?" I said, tentatively. I looked at what I was wearing. I was wearing a purple coat. Purple was a dark color, wasn't it? Oh forget it, it had pink trim on the sleeves, and I was wearing a lavender tank top underneath.

"Yeah!" said Cabaji pulling me a along. "Let's go!"

Cabaji fit right in. No one gave him any odd stares, it was me that was getting the funny looks for wearing a color like lavender. Heaven forbid I wear a practical color like lavender. And oh god, they were incense burning. The store reeked of incense. Everywhere! There were little pots of incense burning all around the store. Everywhere you turned you where hit by a cloud of it. I saw someone pay for something and when the clerk opened the cash register incense poured out.

"Wow, it smells really nice in here." said Cabaji happily sniffing the air.

I felt like I was about to pass out. I needed air.

I attempted to feign interest at a rack fishnet stockings and some lingerie that looked it was for people with bondage fetishes, while Cabaji examined (of all things) a display of very spiky and very painful looking pieces of body jewelry.

A girl with purple hair approached him with what looked to be an earring pistol.

"Need something pierced, hun?" she asked, fingering the little device.

She was hitting on him. I was enraged. _I_ was his fangirl. No one else could be his fangirl. She didn't even know who he was! And she wanted to poke holes in his body with that little thing?

"No thanks, we're good." I said, quickly crossing to Cabaji, and grabbing him.

"But fangirl-chan--"

"Grace!!"

"Well now, aren't you the odd couple." said the girl, the sarcasm poorly concealed, as her tongue piercing clinked against her teeth.

"She's my fangirl." said Cabaji matter-of-factly.

"Your fangirl?" said the girl, giving me an odd look.

"Never mind." I said, attempting without success to pull Cabaji away. "We'll just be going."

"Wait fangirl-chan, I want to pierce something." said Cabaji turning back to the girl. "What kind of piercings can you do?"

"Ears, eyebrows, lips, anywhere you want." said the girl, winking broadly. "And we mean _anywhere._"

Okay, that was disgusting. Cabaji didn't seem to get what she had implied however. He turned back to me.

"What do you think, fangirl-chan?" he said, eagerly. "Should I pierce my ear or my eyebrow? I don't think piercing my lip would look that good though, I--"

"You're not piercing anything!" I said emphatically. "I am not paying for you to have someone poke holes in your body! What if it gets infected? What if your ear swells up and falls off?! Then I'd have to pay for you to go see some medical specialist so they could stick your ear back on! And to do that they'd need information about you, and that would lead to very awkward questions."

"But I've always wanted my one of my ears pierced." said Cabaji. "Really. Alvida nee-san offered to pierce one for me, but I didn't trust her. She was going to use one of Buggy's knives."

"That was very smart of you not to trust her." I said, wincing as I pictured Alvida leaning over Cabaji's ear and clutching one of Buggy's long tasseled knives.

"Are you piercing something or not?" said the girl, looking annoyed with me. "If you want to, don't let your…uh…_fangirl_ talk you out of it."

I hated that she was flirting with him and that she was being rude to me. I hadn't wanted to tell Cabaji this, because we would _never_ leave the mall if I did, but had no choice.

"Hey Cabaji." I said, as temptingly as I could. "You can play Dance Dance Revolution in the mall you know?"

"Really?!" said Cabaji, spinning around his eyes wide. "Where?! Can you 'Battle Without Honor or Humanity' on it?!'

"I don't know." I said smiling. "But we can go find out. Not to mention there are all sorts of other games you can play, not to mention games where you hurt things, blow things up, kill people and--"

Cabaji grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the store.

"Sorry!" he yelled to the flabbergasted girl. "I want to go hurt some people! I'll come back and pierce something some other time"

I would make sure that other time never happened.

I then of course had to take Cabaji to the arcade, which I really hadn't wanted to. I knew Cabaji would spend the entire day in there, playing DDR, and various violent games. The other problem was that all the anime fans hung out at the arcade. There was bound the be a large number of teenagers there who would recognize him from One Piece, and wondering why he was cosplaying in the middle of an arcade and why he was such an obscure character.

"Cabaji, there is one thing you have to do, if we are going to go play DDR and kill all sorts of virtual things." I said, very seriously. "If anyone asks you anything about the famous treasure One Piece, or any other odd questions along those lines, just tell them that you are a professional cosplayer, and that you just came back from a convention."

"What's a cosplayer?" said Cabaji. "You never told me before, and what's a convention?"

"I'll explain later." I said. "But if anyone asks you any odd personal questions, just say you're a cosplayer."

"Okay fangirl-chan."

"Grace."

Once we got to the arcade, Cabaji wanted to play everything. So while he was blowing stuff apart and mutilating helpless virtual people on various M-rated games, I just played DDR.

I tried to kind of watch Cabaji, (he was getting funny looks again, now that we weren't in the punk/goth/emo store anymore.) but it's kind of hard to try and watch the four little flying arrows and make sure Cabaji isn't doing something weird and provoking odd questions from some of the anime freaks I know hang out here.

"Hey man, I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but you look like you're straight out of an anime or something."

"Uh…yeah. Yeah, that's right." I heard Cabaji say. "I'm um…um…"

_A cosplayer. You're a cosplayer Cabaji. Please don't tell me you've forgotten it. Please don't go and say something stupid like---_

"I'm…a player! Yeah, that's it, I'm a player! I'm a really good one too. I'm like, a _professional_ player. I uh, do a lot of playing. I actually just got back from…um…a job."

Oh god, of all the things he had to say. He just had to forget the "cos" in front of "player." The boy stared at him looking absolutely appalled.

"No!" I said, jumping off the dancepad and running to Cabaji. "No! You are a _cos_player. Say it! _Cosplayer_!! Do _not_ say that you're a _player_!!"

"Oh hey, fangirl-chan." said Cabaji turning to me, completely unfazed. "A cosplayer? Is that it? Sorry I forgot. I said I was a player, what's a difference?"

"It's Grace, and there is a huge difference." I said, taking his arm. "Come on, we're going to play Dance Dance Revolution."

"Oh yeah!" said Cabaji eagerly. "I got so excited about blowing stuff up and killing stuff I forgot that was the whole reason we came here! Let go see if they have 'Battle Without Honor or Humanity'!"

He dragged me off t the dancepad while I shot the very confused looking boy an apologetic look.

After about an hour of DDR with Cabaji, I was exhausted, (At one point my combo had actually been higher than his, but he couldn't stand the thought of me possibly beating him, so he pushed me off the dancepad …the cheater!) so Cabaji began taking on every kid in the arcade who knew how to play. He beat everyone, even the real DDR addicts, who like spend their lives shoving quarters into the machine and never share the dancepad with anyone. The whole arcade was stunned by him, but he was still getting the odd looks, though thankfully no one else had questioned him.

I eventually made him leave. I practically had to drag him by the hair, but I figured it was pay back for him pushing me off the mat. And anyway, I wanted food.

"It's way past lunchtime." I said, at a loss as to how he could possibly still have the energy to keep playing after over an hour and a half. "Don't you want food or something?"

"Not really fangirl-chan." said Cabaji as I pulled him along. "Are we going to go back so I can pierce my eyebrow?"

"NO!" I said vehemently. "We are NOT piercing your eyebrow! We're going to eat food. I'm hungry, and I'm going to go and eat something, whether you like it or not. And my name is Grace."

I dragged him to the food court. I wasn't really _that_ hungry, but if I had let him have his way we probably would have been in the arcade until midnight.

"Does anywhere sell toast for lunch?" asked Cabaji, peering around at the various typical food court stores.

"No." I said, trying not to roll my eyes.

"Okay then fangirl-chan, I'm going to walk around." he said, plaintively, turning to leave.

I didn't think it was exactly the smartest idea to turn Cabaji loose on the mall, but he was already walking away and I figured he'd be okay so long as he didn't go and get his eyebrow pierced. (It's not like he had any money to anyway.)

"It's Grace!!" I called after him, as he walked away, but it's not like he would remember anyway.

So I got in line for Chinese food. Sure it's not the healthiest, but is anything really healthy in food courts? It was a really long line, and I was really bored. About seven minutes later, Cabaji suddenly returned.

"Hey fangirl-chan." he whispered, looking all mysterious and highly suspicious.

"What Cabaji?" I said, not bothering to point out again that my name was Grace.

"I got you a present." he said, beaming.

This was suddenly a huge out-of-character moment for him. Since when did Cabaji happily buy presents and _beam_ at people? I was a little shocked.

"Really?" I said, surprised by this sudden gesture of affection and OOC-ness, but wondering how on earth he had bought it, whatever it was.

Cabaji reached into his pocket and pulled out…a diamond necklace. Like, the kinds that cost hundreds of dollars.

He dropped it into my hand smiling broadly, while I gaped at him.

"I saw it in a store, and it was really pretty and sparkly, and well, I thought it was kind of ugly, but you like pretty and sparkly things, or at least, I thought all girls were supposed to like pretty and sparkly things, well, at least I know Alvida does, so I--"

"You stole this, didn't you Cabaji?" I said, trying hard not to laugh.

Cabaji looked uncomfortable.

"No." he said very unconvincingly.

"Are you lying to me, Cabaji?" I asked, still trying to laugh.

"Maybe."

"You _so_ stole this Cabaji." I said, shaking my head.

"Well, I'm a pirate." said Cabaji, as if this automatically redeemed his actions. "Pirates are _supposed_ to steal stuff."

"Piracy is frowned upon here and not exactly what most people would call socially acceptable." I said, handing the necklace back to him. "I greatly appreciate the gesture, but how about you go stick the necklace back where you found it before the store owner notices it's missing and calls security you end up arrested."

"Oh." said Cabaji, looking rather dispirited. "Okay then."

He walked all gloomy, in his whole "dark and troubled" mood. I was very touched that Cabaji had wanted to try and give me such a fancy gift, but disturbed and somewhat amused at his lightheartedness about stealing. It appeared that had the heart of poet, and yet the conscience of a thief. I wondered if the two ever came in conflict, but I doubted if it ever bother him all that much.

And not to mention that was hugely OOC of him. That bothered me a lot.

I advanced in the line, and had just ordered my food, when Cabaji returned.

"I put it back." he said, still looking gloomy. "No one noticed."

"Thank you." I said, wondering if I could possibly reform him. "It was a lovely thought though, and I really appreciated it."

The cashier rang up the total, as my egg roll was handed to me.

"That'll be 3.55." the cashier said, in an "I-hate-my-job" kind of voice.

"Oh!!" said Cabaji. "I want to buy it for you fangirl-chan!!"

He produced a small blue wallet and began shuffling through it. I just gaped at him.

"Umm…what ones are the threes?" he said, peering at the little bills. "What about the coins, can I use those?"

"Are you foreign?" asked the cashier in an "I-really-don't-want-to-deal-with-foreigners" kind of voice.

"Uh, yeah, sure whatever that means." said Cabaji. "Here, just take ten. This one says ten, right? So if it's more than three, it's enough, right?"

The cashier took the bill and shoved it into the cash register, and handed Cabaji the change.

"Whoa! I give you money and then you give me money?" said Cabaji, staring at the change in his hands. "That's pretty cool!"

"Thank you and have a good day." he said in a "please-don't-come-back" tone of voice.

I sat down at the nearest table and Cabaji sat across from me looking very pleased.

"I bought you an egg roll fangirl-chan!" he said, beaming at me. "Are you happy?"

"You stole that, didn't you?" I said, peering at the wallet.

"No." said Cabaji, in that same uncomfortable and unconvincing voice.

"Are you lying to me, _again_?" I asked.

"Maybe."

* * *

**By the way, apologies to people who are punk/goth/emo if I offended anyone. Personally, I shop at punk/goth/emo stores all the time because I look good in dark colors, and about 55 percent of my friends are punk/goth/emo. **

**So…what did you think? Let me know! And as for next chapter, (spoiler warning!) we'll be meeting the infamous "One Piece Fangirl Otaku Club." How will they take to Cabaji? Or more importantly, how will he take to them? **

**Please review! **


	7. In Which There are More Fangirls

**I know…you all deserve to be really mad at me. I haven't posted in like…years. Alright, not quite years, but still, I've been a lazy bastard and I'm better than this so I'll try to do better about keeping a posting schedule. **

* * *

Okay, so I tried to lecture Cabaji about not stealing again, but I don't think it really made all that much of a difference.

So then we, actually more like _I_ returned to wallet to the lost and found after replacing the 3.55 and we left, because I didn't think it was good for Cabaji to be in the mall much longer.

I did not allow him to pierce his eyebrow.

On the walking home though, Cabaji (now back to his surly, dark and troubled self, no more happiness.) brought up the subject of "_his_ book" again.

"So fangirl-chan." he said. "I want to read my book. You said we could read my book. You better not have forgotten."

I had given up on getting him to call me Grace.

"No I haven't forgotten!" I said quickly, though I had hoped Cabaji might have. "We can um, go to the library if you want, it's just down this street, and the internet is faster."

"What's the internet?"

"Um…" I said, trying to figure out how to sum up the world wide web to someone who had not even the vaguest idea of computer technology. "You can read all sorts of things on it."

"Like my book?"

"Exactly! Like your book!"

So I endeavored to take Cabaji to the library. Yeah, books. Cabaji's favorite thing in the world.

"There are books in here." he said glowering at all the stacks. "I hate books."

"Yes, we all know that." I said. "Please don't say that too loudly in here."

I walked over to the little old librarian and asked her for a computer, handing her my card.

"You're _that girl._" she said, peering through her thick spectacles at me with suspicion. "That _odd_ one. You're not going to have a conniption and start screaming like you did that one time, are you?"

"No." I said, timidly.

She glowered at me and handed me back my card.

She had assigned me to the downstairs computer room, which was empty and I was grateful for. No one to ask Cabaji funny questions and he could complain about the books all he wanted.

"I want to check my email first, if that's okay." I said, sitting down.

"What's that?" he said, pulling a book off the shelf and glaring at it.

"It's like a letter, only it's in here." I said, pointing at the computer.

"Oh." said Cabaji. He obviously didn't get it, but acted like he did. So checked my email and Cabaji walked around, making rude comments about the books and looking over my shoulder to read my emails, before wandering back into the shelves.

I was just about to type in the address of a good manga site, when I heard all too familiar voices.

"So like, I just bought this totally sweet box set online, like straight from Japan."

"Omigosh! It must have been like, so totally expensive."

"But it was like, so totally worth it."

"Like, what arc is it?"

"Like, Skypeia. I found one from Enies Lobby too, but the shipping was like, way too much. But I haven't been able to like, even _find_ a set from Thriller Bark yet!"

"Yeah, I bet its like, too new or something to be released."

My fingers froze over the keyboard.

"Shit!" I muttered.

"Hey fangirl-chan" said Cabaji, reappearing from behind a stack of books. "A bunch of weird-looking girls just walked in.

I swore again. "I forgot the One Piece Otaku Fangirl Club meets down here on Saturdays."

"_Fangirl_ club?" said Cabaji. "And you're not in it?"

"I was, but they kicked me out."

"Why?"

"Don't ask." I said. "It involves you. Just hide quick."

I shoved him behind a bookshelf, and threw myself back in the computer chair, trying to be inconspicuous.

"Well, well Grace. I didn't expect to see you here." I thought told you we like, didn't want you at our meetings?"

And there they were. The One Piece Otaku Fangirl Club. They were a motley crew, no pun intended. They prided themselves on each representing a certain member of the Straw hat crew, and by representing, I mean some of the most bizarre cosplaying and crossplaying ever done.

There's Luffy-Fangirl, who clearly leads them all. She's got short black hair and ripped jeans and sandals like Luffy's, only she's got this unfortunate habit of letting her vest hang open like Luffy and the result is that we end up seeing far more of her chest than is enjoyable. She got the straw hat too of course, which she constantly brags about how it's a professional cosplayer's accessory straight from Japan. She even goes as far as to draw on Luffy's scar on with eyeliner, but seeing as she's can't exactly tell left from right and doesn't know how to use a mirror properly, the scar usually ends up under the wrong eye, like today.

Close behind Luffy-Fangirl is Zoro-Fangirl. Her hair's short too, and it's got the look that it may have at one time been blond, however now it appears that her hair was dunked in a bowl of kiwi Kool-aid for too long. Her costume's not too bad though, the white shirt, black pants and green sash. She's got the three little gold earrings in her left lobe, however it appears that she pierced the last two holes herself, because they're all red and swollen and oozing pus.

Then there's Nami-Fangirl, who's probably the most normal of the bunch. Her hair may have met some orange Kool-aid at one point, but it doesn't look too bad. She wears the typical low-cut blouse and mini skirt, which I can forgive. However she gives off an incredible funk of fruit and smells as though she took a bath in the citrus section of a perfume shop so as to make sure she properly smelled of mikan oranges.

After that there's Usopp-Fangirl, who at least has the sense not to try pulling off crossplaying Sogeking in public. She's got on brown overalls that slack at the chest only a bit, so she's not as bad as Luffy-Fangirl. She wears a bandana in her curly brown hair with a pair of swimming goggles. She carries a slingshot in her back pocket, and I know from experience she knows how to use it and it hurts like hell.

And next there's Sanji-Fangirl, who's got her blonde hair gelled over her left eye like Sanji and has drawn the little curls on her eyebrows. She wears the typical blue striped shirt with a vest and dress pants. She'd seem decent if she didn't smell like underage smoking though. Getting within a proximity of three feet of her is enough to give you an asthma attack.

There is no Chopper-Fangirl, because it seemed that no one wanted to walk around wearing red trousers, a fur stole, blue mascara on their nose and a Chopper hat. So, Usopp-Fangirl carries a Chopper doll to represent their missing member.

Robin-Fangirl is fairly normal though, thank goodness. She wears the purple cowboy hat with a black corset top. A black mini-skirt follows with garter straps and fishnets that Misa-Misa would be jealous of. At least she hasn't attempted to attach extra arms to her shoulders.

And last but certainly not least, in my opinion, the most terrifying of all the fangirls: Franky-Fangirl. Her hair has clearly been good friends with some blue raspberry Kool-aid, and I swear she must use and entire bottle of gel to hold of that pompadour. It's highly likely that she could her hair as a weapon by head butting someone and impaling them in their stomach. That's how hard her hair looks from all that hair gel. She's got the sunglass and her Hawaiian shirt that hangs open oh-so nicely and puts Luffy-Fangirl's to shame. She's drawn blue stars on her forearms and is…surprise, surprise! Drinking a cola. But the worst part of Franky-Fangirl is most definitely from the waist down. Oh yes, she's got the spandex as she clearly has no problem flaunting her ass in such a manner. But the scariest thing about Franky-Fangirl, is that she _doesn't shave her legs_. Her fandom leads her to defy feminine personal care simply so she can have Franky's legs. It's horrifying.

There is no Brook-Fangirl. It's likely that the group with recruit some goth in a top hat to dress up for them in the near future.

"Now Grace, I thought we like, told you we didn't want you at our meetings?" said Luffy-Fangirl glowering at me.

"Yeah," wheezed Sanji-Fangirl, who can only rasp out words due to the amount of cigarette smoke she consumes in a day. We don't want fangirls of that shitty bastard Cabbage-head the acrobat or whatever his name is."

She obviously thinks it's cool to swear like Sanji too. All the girls start laughing, but then she starts coughing, and pulls a cigarette out of her bag.

"Aren't you a little young to smoke?" I asked. "Not mention we're in a library?"

"Shut up, shitty fangirl bitch." she wheezed, lighting the cigarette while the others still laughed.

"So you've like, got some nerve to be here Grace." said Nami-Fangirl, nearly knocking me out with her wave of fruity smells. "Did you come to tell us you've like, converted or something? Got tired of Cabbage did you?"

"Excuse me here, but the last time I checked my name wasn't Cabbage."

Cabbage stepped out from behind his bookcase, looking ready to murder someone. Just what I needed.

The girls all just stared at him, looking absolutely stunned until Zoro-Fangirl started laughing.

"Hah!!" she shrieked. "Grace!! I don't believe it! You've gone and found yourself a damn cosplayer!!"

With the whole "Zoro vs. Cabaji" thing, and Zoro-Fangirl very clearly ready to defend her fandom, I figured this wasn't going to end well.

"What the hell is a cosplayer?!" said Cabaji, exasperatedly. "I've been asked that like, twenty times now."

Zoro-Fangirl gave him a funny look and then turned back to me.

"So like, what'd you do Grace?" Usopp-Fangirl snarled. "Pay some hobo on the street to dress up like Cabbage for you and follow you around?"

"My name isn't Cabbage." Cabaji growled at her, towering over her. She actually looked rather terrified.

"Don't get near her you freak!" yelled Franky-Fangirl, lunging in front of Nami-Fangirl and flexing her quite non-existent muscles.

"Okay, _ladies_, and I use the term _very_ loosely." said Cabaji, glowering around at them all, and it was obvious he had other words in mind. "First thing to get straight, is my name is Cabaji, not Cabbage. One day Mohji thought it would be funny to call me Cabbage, and eventually it really pissed me off so I beat the shit out of him."

Sanji-Fangirl gasped only was more like a strangled intake of breath.

"You shouldn't swear when there are ladies around!" she choked out indignantly.

"Show me a lady." said Cabaji, glowering at them all.

I figured Cabaji was lying, because if he could easily "beat the shit" out of Mohji then he would be first mate instead of second and he would have won that fight against Mohji and ended up captain. However, the fangirls seemed too traumatized to notice.

"Alright, so you must think you're like, so cool, Mr. Cosplayer." said Robin-Fangirl, who was clearly attempting to mimic Robin's style of speech by addressing Cabaji as 'Mr. Cosplayer.' "With your ridiculous outfit and hanging out with Miss Fangirl here. So what are you going to do? Beat the shit out of us too? It's not like Cabaji's got a shred of honor or humanity in him. I bet Cabaji wouldn't think twice about beating up a bunch of girls. He doesn't even fight fairly. But wait, what am I rambling on about?"

She paused, giggling and totally destroying her "Nico Robin" composure.

"You're just a _cosplayer_."

"I don't get what this cosplayer thing is!" said Cabaji rounding on me. "What are these freaks talking about?"

"Oh don't play stupid." said Usopp-Fangirl. "You obviously know what a cosplayer is, don't pretend for your fangirl's sake. It's not like you're _actually_ Cabaji the freakin' Acrobat. Even _Grace_ knows that."

"How would you know?" said Cabaji, scrutinizing her.

"Umm…let me think." she said, sarcastically. "Maybe it's because, _Cabaji's…not…real!"_

"I don't know where you're getting this from, what makes you think I'm not real?" snarled Cabaji. "I'll show you how real I am."

With one sudden movement that shocked even me, Cabaji thrust his entire hand down his throat and pulled out…a sword.

The girls screamed. _All_ of them. It was like one perfect soprano chorus except for Sanji-Fangirl's raspy little scream that was more like "ehhh-hack-cough-ehhhh!!!"

"Will you all just shut the hell up?" said Cabaji.

They did. They all just sort of huddled around each other, staring at Cabaji.

"Let me tell you a bit about honor and humanity." he said, shrugging his cloak off one shoulder, to reveal a long jagged scar running from the lower region of his chest and disappearing into the pale blue sash he wore at his waist. Even I gasped, I hadn't even noticed it when he had taken his cloak off before.

"Roronoa Zoro left his mark on me." Cabaji said, in a surprisingly serious voice. "But I fight how I want to. I'll do whatever I need to or feel in order to try and win, but sometimes you're just facing a stronger opponent and it doesn't even matter. Once the fight's over, and you've lost, and you're lying on the ground bleeding, thinking you might even be about to die, honor and humanity aren't going to help you all that much."

He slid his cloak back onto his shoulders.

"You need more proof than that?"

"How…?" Luffy-Fangirl began.

"It's a little complicated." I said, savoring the little moment of triumph.

Cabaji suddenly placed his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him.

"I knew coming to the library was bad idea fangirl-chan." he muttered. "It's full of nerdy books and you meet all sorts of weird people."

I was too stunned by the fact he was holding me to comment he was the one who had wanted to go to the library so we could read "his book."

He pointed his sword at the small crowd of fangirls who shrank away.

"You leave fangirl-chan alone." he said, in an uncharacteristically protective voice.

"Come on." I said. "You've traumatized the fangirls enough. They can gossip about us all they like once we're gone, and besides, we're not supposed to have weapons in the library."

Cabaji, hoisted me over his shoulder. Seriously, like I was some sort of damsel in distress he had just rescued. It was a little awkward.

"I'm warning you, don't ever bother fangirl-chan again." he said, sliding his sword back down his throat. "Because you're right." he added, turning to leave.

"I really wouldn't think twice about beating up a bunch of girls."


	8. In Which There is an Empty Space

**Haha. I finally posted! I've been working a story for specific event and it's been monopolizing my time because I was trying to meet a deadline. But now that's all done I'll **_**try**_** to be a better author and actually update. **

**I don't own One Piece...did you honestly think I did?**

* * *

"Cabaji, you really didn't have to make that big of a deal."

"They were a load of bitches fangirl-chan."

"Cabaji!"

"Well they were, and you know it."

"Well you don't need to call them that!"

"Well what would you prefer I call them?" said Cabaji as we walked home. "Trust me, I know plenty of other words."

I had no doubt of this, but I didn't exactly want to hear any of them.

Cabaji had carried me out of the library on his shoulder, only bother to stop and tell the librarian not worry because he wasn't kidnapping me, who in response muttered: "I wouldn't care even if you were."

"Just forget it." I said, shaking my head. "We don't have to worry about them. They're too stupid to think to call the cops, and if they did it's not like anyone would believe a story from a bunch of ditzy girls claiming they were threatened by a pirate who pulls swords out of his throat."

"Wasn't that cool?" said Cabaji, grinning. "It was like, perfect timing. A nicely melodramatic touch, don't you think?"

Cabaji seemed to be a bit on the out-of-character side lately. He was certainly more friendly to me than before, but he was developing these odd moments here and there that concerned me. What if I was changing him? What if he somehow became no longer dark and troubled?

When we got home, I turned on my computer. My computer was like…slower than death on crutches.

So Cabaji played DDR while I waited for the computer to turn on and load the Internet.

It took awhile.

By the time I had pulled up the internet, Cabaji had beaten all his old records without even breaking a sweat.

How was I supposed to explain this to him? _I_ didn't even understand how he had come to be in my world, from _his_ world of One Piece. In the fanfictions they always seemed to dance around that little detail. It's always some sort of random portal that pops up out of nowhere and everyone jumps in. The explanations of 'how it happened' usually seemed to lack a little something…

Remember the "super-special-awesome magic portal?" Yeah...nothing like those "Straw Hats get sucked into our world" stories. They're classics.

I took a deep breath, as I typed into a good manga site. I pulled up volume two of One Piece. It seemed like such a long time ago since those early chapters. I mean, we had only just seen Buggy's crew again for the first time again, and that was for about what…four pages?

I brought up chapter 15 and clicked to the page I remembered so well, where he mysteriously and nonchalantly stepped out of the shadows and actually said stuff. Ahh…such fond memories back in the library. Right then…page 4…

I waited for the page to load on my abysmally slow computer, awaiting the nostalgic thrill I would get when I saw him.

He wasn't there.

I stared at the page. He wasn't there.

It was just...this big empty space where he was supposed to be. I didn't get it. The rest of the characters were there, Buggy and everyone, but there was no Cabaji, just an empty panel. It was bizarre.

Perplexed, I decided to check the next chapter, where I knew he had his fight with Zoro. Cabaji wasn't in any of the scenes, though Buggy, Luffy, Zoro and Nami remained intact. Why were all the spaces where Cabaji was supposed to be blank? Ritchie was just randomly floating on the first page. Mohji was yelling at a nonexistent person for damaging his lion. Zoro had jumped in front of Luffy to challenge a swordsman who wasn't there. Even stranger was Zoro getting kicked by the air.

I didn't get it. Where had Cabaji gone? Why wasn't he in the manga panels anymore?

Then it hit me.

He wasn't there, because he was here.

How did this affect the story? As long as Cabaji was here, was his part was empty? Had Miss Goldenweek removed him from One Piece altogether? How did that work? Would One Piece still 'function' without one of its characters?

I decided that it could, because no one would miss a minor character like Cabaji. Though I couldn't help but wonder about the Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Ace fangirls out there who had no doubt had their fan art brought to life. One Piece definitely wouldn't be the same story without them, but if they had been brought to life for their fangirls, how could they be in One Piece now?

Figuring Miss Goldenweek probably knew what she was doing, I decided not to worry because Cabaji was here and it didn't matter if he wasn't in One Piece anymore because no one but me would really care if he wasn't there.

"Fangirl-chan, what is taking so long?" asked Cabaji from the other room. He had sprawled himself elegantly across the couch and looked damn sexy.

"Um…sorry. The place I was going to look for your story is…um…broken. We'll have to look at it some other day."

"Are you lying to me, Fangirl-chan?" said Cabaji, getting up as I quickly closed the window.

"No."

"Lying is bad Fangirl-chan, and so is being a hypocrite."

"And so is stealing." I added. "Seriously, I'm sorry I couldn't find your story. I'll find it sometime soon. Okay?"

"Whatever." said Cabaji, shrugging. "So, what else does this box thing do?"

"You mean the computer?" I said. "Lots of stuff."

So I proceeded to show him the wonders of the world wide web.

He wasn't impressed.

"What the hell does 'Google' mean?" he asked skeptically.

"Just type something into the little bar." I said. "Type anything you want."

Cabaji looked down at the keyboard.

"You're alphabet is messed up." he said plaintively. "Since when does 'Q' come first?"

I didn't want to explain why the keyboard letters were the way they were because I actually didn't know myself. So I let him pick his way through the letters until he managed to type out his name.

That didn't end so well though, because all that Google brought up was a ton of anime review sites, and a few forums devoted to bashing minor characters. And then at the bottom of the page, it read: "Your search to not obtain many results. Did you mean to search _Cabbage_?"

"My name isn't Cabbage!" Cabaji yelled. "Screw this stupid box-thing!"

I managed to keep him from destroying the computer, and then decided to show him fanficiton.

Cabaji of course just had to type his name into the search bar.

"What's yay-oi?" he asked, surveying the list of summaries.

"What?" I said, squinting at the page.

"Yay-oi." he repeated pointing to a story.

"You mean yaoi?" I said. "Ya-way?"

"Yeah that's it! I've heard Alvida mention it, but I've never really read it."

"Alvida reads yaoi?" I said. "Why does that not surprise me?"

"I want to read it!" said Cabaji eagerly, grabbing the mouse from me. "This one looks good. It says 'Cabaji and Buggy go shopping for new clothes.' That sounds totally random, but what the heck! Only, why does it have the word 'lemons' written in capital letters?"

"Oh god no! Cabaji don't read that!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?"

Cabaji didn't read anymore fanfiction after that.

Cabaji had read about three lines into the story when he had simultaneously discovered the meanings of both 'yaoi' and 'lemons.'

"Dressing rooms…" he muttered. "Oh god, I am never going in another dressing room as long as I live."

* * *

That evening we decided to watch a movie.

(I of course had to explain what a movie was first.)

Cabaji didn't want to watch anything that I did.

_I_ wanted to watch _Titanic,_ or _Spirited Away_, or _Phantom of the Opera_. Something sweet and dramatic and very romantic.

Cabaji wanted to watch something where people got ripped apart.

I thought he would enjoy something like, _Sweeney Todd_, but Cabaji was turned off by the fact there was singing in it. I almost had him convinced to watch _Pirates of the Caribbean, _until Cabaji found _Kill Bill. _

Anything, with a title like _Kill Bill,_ Cabaji of course just _had_ to watch.

And then of course, if we were going to watch _Kill Bill_ _Volume1, _we just _had_ to watch _Kill Bill Volume 2 _along with it.

"This is awesome." said Cabaji, thoroughly enjoying every moment of The Black's Mamba's blood-soaked quest for revenge.

"I think I'm going to throw up." I said, trying not to look at the blood-drenched limbs and heads that were flying everywhere.

"Hey fangirl-chan! They're playing my favorite song! Battle Without Honor or Humanity! Did I tell you I got a triple-A on this song at expert level?"

"Fantastic." I said, as the TV screen seemed to become a solid mass of red.

_"It's just ketchup Grace."_ I told myself, with little success. _"Just lots and lots of ketchup…ketchup…oh god…they must have raided a whole warehouse of ketchup just to make this movie."_

I supposed this was payback for accidentally exposing Cabaji to lemons and yaoi.

But all the same, despite the highly "un-romantic" atmosphere, (I mean, _Kill Bill_ isn't exactly what you'd call a chick-flick.) I was again overwhelmed by that wonderful feeling of contentment. It was so unbelievable that Cabaji could be right here, in my living room, on the couch next to me. And no matter what movie we were watching, (I really would have preferred _Titanic._)….like I said before: It was pretty awesome.

I woke up the next morning after falling asleep in the middle of _Kill Bill Volume 2. _Cabaji was sprawled across the couch next to me still asleep.

His hand was around my shoulder. I snuggled in a little closer and smelled his lovely 'acrobat-smell.' I was feeling highly fangasmic at the moment wanted to very much to squee, but I figured Cabaji would be highly annoyed if he was woken up by my delighted fangirl 'squeeing.' So I leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, before gently dislodging myself from his embrace. He muttered something about dressing rooms which I thought was best to ignore.

I took a shower and got dressed as I usually did in the morning. Cabaji was still asleep, so I proceeded to the kitchen to make toast. We were almost out of bread... I wondered if I could get Cabaji to eat waffles instead.

I was just plugging in the toaster when the phone rang.

"Hello?" I said, picking up the phone and inserting bread into the toaster simultaneously.

"Hey Grace! It's Kenzie!" said Mackenzie's voice from the other end. "How come you haven't called me in the past couple days? I thought we were going to make plans to watch FMA a couple nights ago."

In light of the highly significant events that had recently transpired, i.e. a manga character showing up in my room, I had forgotten about our date to watch FMA. Or rather, I had forgotten about Mackenzie wanting to have me over watch her favorite scenes of Roy Mustang so she could have someone to squee to all night.

"I'm, I've been a little…occupied." I said.

"With what?" asked Mackenzie. "It's the middle of summer!"

"Um…some unexpected things have happened." I said, trying not to sound suspicious.

"Oooo…Like what?" asked Mackenzie eagerly.

"Um…I've had company over." I said. "It's kept me a little busy."

"Who?"

"Umm…." I said, not sure how to put this.

"Never mind." said Mackenzie. "I called to remind you about play rehearsal today."

"Oh no problem! I hadn't forgotten!" I said quickly.

I had forgotten.

"I think we're doing a lot of the choreography today." said Mackenzie. "Be sure to bring your dance shoes."

"I hate dancing in my stupid costume!" I groaned. "It's so uncomfortable!"

Mackenzie laughed unsympathetically.

"Well anyway," she continued. "I'll stop by in about fifteen minutes to pick you up. Sound good?"

"Actually Kenzie," I said quickly. "Maybe I'll walk by myself instead, I mean, it's not that far to the theatre and…"

"Oh come on." said Mackenzie. "I haven't heard from you in days. We need to catch up."

"Kenzie, I really…"

"Fifteen minutes Grace." said Mackenzie, cutting me off. "I'm coming by in fifteen minutes whether you like it or not."

And then she hung up.

And then the toast popped out of the toaster.

Oh man. How was I supposed to explain this to Mackenzie?

_"Hi Mackenzie! Um…this is my cousin Chad. No, what are you talking about Mackenzie? He doesn't look anything like Cabaji the Acrobat from One Piece. What are you talking about? You've been reading way too much One Piece Mackenzie. You've been reading so much One Piece that now you're starting to imagine that my family members look like characters. Seriously. This is my cousin. He is not from One Piece." _

Mackenzie wasn't that stupid.

And then there was the question of play rehearsal. I had been in this play all summer, and the performance was close, I couldn't skip today. But I couldn't leave Cabaji at home! There's no telling what could happen.

_"CABAJI! WHY THE HELL IS MY HOUSE ON FIRE?"_

_"Hey fangirl-chan, umm…I was making toast, and then I broke the toaster, so I started putting the bread in the oven instead, only then I started playing Dance Dance Revolution, and I forgot the bread was in the oven, and it kind of caught on fire…_

Yeah…I didn't think leaving Cabaji unattended was a good idea.

But how was I supposed to bring him to play practice? Not to mention he'd make fun of me in my ridiculous costume.

"Fangirl-chan! I smell toast!"

Cabaji staggered groggily into the kitchen yawning.

I passed him the toast that had just popped out of the toaster.

"Um…Cabaji, I have to go someplace this morning."

"Where?"

"Um…to a theatre."

"I love the theatre." said Cabaji enthusiastically. "Can I come?"

"Well, it's only a rehearsal." I said. "And I mean, you might get bored, and there's lots of singing, which you might find a little annoying, and-"

"Oh, you just don't want me to come." said Cabaji, glowering at me in an _almost_ good-natured way.

"No, it's not that…" I said hesitantly.

"Are you lying to me?" said Cabaji suspiciously.

"Don't do this again Cabaji." I said, recalling our similar conversation of last night.

"Lying is bad fangirl-chan." said Cabaji, narrowing his eyes at me.

"So is stealing." I shot back.

Cabaji opened his mouth to retaliate when the doorbell rang.

"Oh no, is she here already?" I said exasperatedly.

"Who?" asked Cabaji.

"Never mind." I said. "Just go upstairs in my room. Don't come down. Just stay there."

"I feel like you don't want me around fangirl-chan." said Cabaji, pouting at me.

I had never seen Cabaji pout. I seemed a bizarre and highly OOC thing for him to do, I had to admit, he looked pretty damn cute.

The doorbell rang again.

I looked from the door to Cabaji.

Luffy fangirls always talk about how Luffy has the most adorable pout. They obviously haven't seen Cabaji show off the fine art because Cabaji puts Luffy to shame.

I sighed.

"Come on." I said, grabbing Cabaji by the hand. "Come meet my friend Mackenzie."


	9. In Which There are Acrobatics

**Hi…oh man. I am one bad, bad, bad, author. But hey, school's out! I now have the whole summer vacation with nothing to do but update my chapters on time and upload more stories! Hooray! **

**I spent three days at an anime convention cosplaying Alvida! (A friend went with me dressed as Coby, we made for a cute little pair. I didn't find anyone dressed as Cabaji though.) And of course, I got lots of AlxCa fanart commissioned! (check out my new avvie!) I even got to be in a One Piece photoshoot, with some 25 or so other One Piece cosplayers, it was **_**fantastic!**_** (Boa Hancock and I got in fight over who got Luffy, it was great.) **

**So anyway…because I was a bad author and made you all wait here's an extra, extra long chapter to make up for it. Enjoy, because "The Fangirl and the Magical Paintbrush Fairy" will be coming to a close soon! *gasp!***

**I don't own One Piece, Roy Mustang (he's back. I told you he would be.) Seto Kaiba, TenTen, or Kuroshitsuji, which is referenced mildly, (For those who might not know it's a Victorian set anime, filled with lots of frilly fancy dresses, which I happen to like, but my OC does not.)** **Lastly, I don't own "Pirate of Penzance" which is a Gilbert and Sullivan opera about pirates that sing, dance, and steal things. There are lots of songs, a flamboyant Pirate King, and lots of women in frilly Victorian dresses who behave like insipid little sheep. I like sheep. **

**Enjoy. **

* * *

I ran down the hallway with Cabaji as Mackenzie hit the doorbell a third time.

"I know you're in there Grace!" I heard her yell from outside. "I just called you! Don't pretend you're not home."

"Wait here a moment." I said to Cabaji, leaving him in the hallway.

I flung open the door to see Mackenzie glowering at me with her hand poised over the doorbell ready to hit it a fourth time.

"What's the deal Grace?" she said, looking thoroughly annoyed. "Are you mad at me or something? You haven't called me in ages, then you say that you'd rather go to play rehearsal by yourself, and then when I show up it takes you forever to get to the door. What's up?"

"I'm not mad at you." I said, glancing behind me to make sure Cabaji wasn't hovering in the background. "Really."

"Then what's your problem?" asked Mackenzie, folding her arms.

"Nothing." I said, quickly turning back to her. "Everything's normal."

"Then why are you acting weird?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "You seem awful stressed out. What's going on?"

"Nothing's going on." I said unconvincingly.

"Spill it Grace." said Mackenzie. "What are you hiding?"

"Nothing!"

"Then why do you keep looking behind yourself like that? What is it?"

I took a deep breath.

"Mackenzie…" I said slowly.

"Yes?" she said, still glaring.

"You know how I said I've been occupied, and some unexpected things happened? And that I've had…_company_?"

"Oh no, Grace…don't tell me, don't tell me it's a boy!"

"Um…yes."

"NO GRACE!" Mackenzie practically screamed, grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me. "No! You can't have-I mean…don't tell me that-?"

"Whoa! Chill out Kenzie!" I said, dislodging her hands from my shoulders. "Holy cow! It's nothing like that! You're way overreacting!"

"So you're still a virgin?"

"Yes! Of course I am! Jeez! Did you think I wasn't talking to you because I was sleeping around with some boy?"

"Well, when you didn't come to the door right away…" said Mackenzie.

"Do I look like I just crawled out of bed with a guy?" I asked.

"No." Mackenzie admitted. "But then what's you're excuse? What's been going on? I'm your best friend Grace. We don't keep secrets from each other."

I took another deep breath.

"You'll see why I kept this a secret." I said.

I turned back into the hallway.

"Hey! My friend Mackenzie wants to meet you!"

"Can I finally come out fangirl-chan?" Cabaji answered. "I was worried you were going to ditch me or something."

"Who are you talking to Grace?" asked Mackenzie, trying to peer over my shoulder. "And why does this guy call you fangirl-chan?"

"Because I'm his fangirl. And because he can't remember to call me Grace."

"What?" said Mackenzie incredulously. "You're his _fangirl_? I thought you a fangirl of that Cabaji guy or whatever his name is. The tacky one with the long hair?"

"My hair isn't tacky." growled Cabaji, looming over me.

Mackenzie looked up at him.

Her eyes widened in this amazing expression of shock and terror. And then she screamed.

You should hear Mackenzie scream. There's a reason she's an actress. She would have put every single one of the One Piece Otaku fangirls to shame. It is a truly horrifying sound that can shatter glass if no one stops it.

"Make her stop!" yelled Cabaji, his hands over his ears.

"Mackenzie, STOP!" I yelled. It had no effect. Mackenzie can scream for five whole minutes.

Cabaji slapped her. Not that hard, but enough to make her stop.

Mackenzie latched onto to my arm and stood trembling, staring at Cabaji.

"Mackenzie, it's okay." I said, gently. "You're cutting off the circulation in my arm."

Mackenzie just stared.

"What's wrong with her?" asked Cabaji, waving his hand in front of her face. She flinched and squeezed my arm harder.

"I think she's gone into shock or something." I said. "I'll go make her some tea."

I managed to escort Mackenzie into the kitchen, where I made green tea and Cabaji demanded toast.

"Are you for real?" Mackenzie managed to ask of Cabaji, once I had forced her to drink some tea and she had let go of my arm.

"What do you mean?" asked Cabaji giving her a quizzical look. "Why wouldn't I be real?"

Mackenzie looked at me.

"Grace, what's going on?" she said. "Why is there an anime character in your kitchen?"

"Anime? What's anime?" asked Cabaji.

"Come on." I said, standing her up. "I'll explain everything."

"You're serious Grace."

"Dead serious."

"No really?"

"Yes Mackenzie!"

"So you drew Cabaji, and Miss Goldenweek showed up and brought him to life?"

"Well, actually she called herself 'The Magical Paintbrush Fairy' but that's about the size of it."

Mackenzie looked as though she was about to explode with excitement.

"When I get home," she cried. "I'm drawing as many pictures of Roy Mustang as I can!"

"Great." I said sarcastically. "Just who we need. That sleazy manwhore-"

"Don't call him a manwhore!" said Mackenzie defensively.

"Then don't say Cabaji's hair is tacky." I retorted.

"But seriously Grace." said Mackenzie. "This is…incredible. You have an anime character living in your house. He's real. I don't know what to say. And what are you supposed to tell your parents?"

"I'm still working on that." I said sheepishly. "Right now my main concern is if he'll end up setting the house on fire while I'm at play practice."

"Bring him with us." said Mackenzie simply.

"What?"

"Bring him with us." Mackenzie repeated. "We're doing choreography today. You know, dance and stuff? Cabaji's an acrobat! He's probably pro at this sort of thing! Not to mention Ms. Lawrence would love him."

"That's a good point." I said thoughtfully. "You should see him play Dance Dance Revolution. Oh but wait, what about Shane?"

"Ah, who cares what Shane thinks." said Mackenzie shrugging. "I'll bet Cabaji's just as good as him, if not better."

"I suppose." I said thoughtfully.

"So bring him along!" said Mackenzie enthusiastically. "He can help choreograph stuff. I'm sure he'd have loads of good ideas. And not to mention the subject matter of our play." she added with a grin.

"It's not fair." I muttered. "Why do I have to be the ditzy female in the ridiculous dress?

"Ah, such is the price of being a main character." giggled Mackenzie. "You get to parade around the stage in a hilarious outfit while we ensemble characters laugh at you in the wings. I can't wait to see the look on Cabaji's face."

"Hey fangirl-chan!" Cabaji yelled from downstairs. "I feel like you're excluding me."

"Sorry!" I called back down. "We'll be down in a second."

"You better." said Cabaji. "I don't like being excluded. It makes me lonely."

"He's not quite what I pictured." said Mackenzie.

"Yeah, he gets these little OOC moments." I said. "I'm not sure why. But when he's watching _Kill Bill…_ he's not OOC _at all_. And you should have seen him when we ran into the One Piece Otaku Fangirl Club. He nearly murdered them."

"I wish he had." muttered Mackenzie. "They're a bunch of freaks. There's a good reason I quit."

"Yeah, it was pretty amusing." I laughed. "He pulled his sword out of his throat and showed them the scars from his fight with Zoro. And then he told them he'd beat them up if they bothered me again."

"I'll bet Britney nearly went into cardiac arrest." laughed Mackenzie.

"Oh, which one was she?" I asked eagerly. "Zoro's fangirl?"

"Oh no, she's a Sanji fangirl." said Mackenzie. "Given how much she smokes at her age I'm surprised she can still breathe."

"Yeah, she looked like she was about to have an asthma attack." I laughed.

"I feel like you guys have abandoned me." Cabaji called from downstairs again.

"This is still so weird Grace." said Mackenzie, shaking her head as we walked downstairs. "I mean, he's kind of a violent character. What if he tries to hurt you or something?"

"Oh, he's threatened to break my arm once or twice, but he doesn't mean it." I laughed. "I know he seems like a violent character, but seriously, he's actually- "

"GET OUT! DAMN IT! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

There was a violent crash in from the kitchen, followed by more swear words that I'm not going to repeat.

Mackenzie and I ran down the stairs to the kitchen to find Cabaji throwing the toaster against the wall.

"SCREW YOU! YOU BETTER COME OUT OR I'LL-Oh hi, fangirl-chan."

"Cabaji, what are you doing to the toaster?" I said, bewildered.

"Oh, the toast is stuck in the toaster, I was trying to get it out." said Cabaji, as if this should have been obvious.

"Not a violent person." Mackenzie muttered to me. "Yeah right."

Surprisingly, Mackenzie and Cabaji got along fairly well.

"Seriously, you've got a set of lungs on you." said Cabaji to Mackenzie as we made our way to the theatre. "I've never heard anyone scream like that."

"Yeah, sorry." said Mackenzie sheepishly. "I tend to overreact sometimes."

"You'd give Alvida a run for her money, and when she's pissed she knows how to scream."

We made our way down the avenue to the Bijoux Theatre where rehearsals were.

"Grace! Mackenzie! Wonderful to see you! Right on time!" cried our amazingly eccentric director, Ms. Lawrence upon our arrival. She was wearing her usual long and ruffled skirt accompanied by four or so shawls of various colors. Her long brown hair was done up in two buns on top of her head. She might have resembled TenTen from Naruto, had there not been large sunflowers on top of the buns.

"Oh, and who might this strapping, handsome young man be?" she inquired, looking at Cabaji with a broad smile.

"This is my friend Cabaji." I said. "He is currently residing in my home after being transported here by a deity of art from another world.

"How fascinating!" cried Ms. Lawrence. You can tell Ms. Lawrence anything so long as it sounds extravagant. With her, the more outrageous the better. Not that she actually believes it, she just likes a good story.

_"Grace. Why are you late?"_

_"Well Ms. Lawrence, there was a woman giving birth in the middle of the street, and on further inspection I realized she was my second cousin from Halifax."_

_"Goodness! Was she alright?"_

_"Oh yes! She had quintuplets."_

_"Wonderful!" _

_"Mackenzie, where is your script?"_

_"Well Ms. Lawrence, my brother went to the circus last night, and he won a free lion. And when he brought it home the lion ate the script."_

_"Oh dear. Hopefully you'll be able to retrieve it somehow. I would advise your brother to return the lion however. He should trade it in for a giraffe."_

"Well now, you and Mackenzie go get changed into your costumes." said Ms. Lawrence. "A few of the other cast members are already changing. Cabaji, if you would like to observe our rehearsals, you may take a seat in the audience. And you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask."

"Um…what's this play called?" he asked.

Mackenzie and I grinned at each other.

"Pirates of Penzance."

* * *

Mackenzie emerged from the dressing room in a baggy ruffled shirt, leather vest ripped pants and large hoop earrings, looking every bit the role of pirate.

Whilst _I_ on the other hand, emerged in a massive pink dress with a bustle and hoop skirt. And the entire thing was covered in rosemary…lace. I cannot stand lace. And to top of the ridiculous ensemble I had an enormous matching hat piled with ribbon and fake flowers all over it. And then there was the tiny little parasol covered in lace.

"Cabaji's going to laugh." giggled Mackenzie.

"Yeah, you've said that." I muttered. "Don't make me beat you with my parasol."

We walked out onstage amongst the other actors, comprised of mostly of pirates and ladies in large over-lacy Victorian dresses. The whole ensemble looked liked we'd stepped out of a One Piece/Kuroshitsuji crossover.

"You look lovely everyone!" Ms. Lawrence announced to us.

I looked around for Cabaji. He was arguing with one of the lead actors, who looked rather uncomfortable.

"So, you're the Pirate King?"

"Um…yes that's my role."

"So you've found the One Piece?"

"The what?"

"You're the Pirate King and you don't even know what the One Piece is?"

"Um…no."

"Then how can you be Pirate King if you don't have the One Piece?"

"Umm…it's the way the play is written?"

"Well the play is wrong. Whoever wrote this play was an idiot. Honestly. The Pirate King _has_ to have the One Piece to be Pirate King. Whoever wrote this play obviously had no idea what they were talking about. And where is this 'Penzance' place? I swear, no where in the Grand Line is there an island called 'Penzance."

"Umm…where is the Grand Line?"

"You don't even know where the Grand Line is?"

"It's not in the play…"

"So let me get this straight. In this play, you're the Pirate King, but you don't have the One Piece and you haven't even been to the Grand Line?"

"Er…yes?"

"You have got to be the worst Pirate King ever."

"Everyone!" Ms. Lawrence called. "I would like to introduce you Grace's friend Cabaji! He's going to watch us today!"

No one gave much of a reaction. We were used to random people watching rehearsals. And when you're into theatre, you meet all sorts of strange people. Long black hair that's shaved off on one side isn't considered all that exotic. I was just glad Mackenzie and I were the only ones who read One Piece.

Cabaji also gave little reaction that he was being introduced. He simply gaped at my dress.

"That dress makes you look like a cake, fangirl-chan." he said.

I blushed, while several members of the giggled.

"Fangirl-chan?" asked my friend Suzanne, who was also in ridiculous Victorian dress and looked like she could have been cosplaying Elizabeth Middleford. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"He can't remember my name." I said sheepishly.

"Ouch." said Suzanne. "Some friend he is."

"Now as you know, we will be continuing with choreography today." said Ms. Lawrence. "Now, as soon as Shane gets here-"

"I'm here."

We all turned to see our choreographer Shane making his usual dramatic entrance. He strode boldly down the aisle, long purple coat billowing out behind him and making him look like a Seto Kaiba cosplayer.

"Chop, chop everyone!" he called, clapping his hands together briskly. "Run it from the overture. Places everyone! Now!"

"I'm off to the wardrobe department!" said Ms. Lawrence, waving cheerily to us. "I'll come back and see the overture in about forty-five minutes! Break a leg everyone!"

I was happy I was not in the overture. I quickly hustled off the stage and into the wings. (Though it's hard to amongst the other actors when you're wearing a dress shaped like a cake.)

Our pit band began the overture. There was no real dialogue in the opening. Gilbert and Sullivan plays always start out with a big long musical number where no one sings or talks, which is typical of an overture. Everyone just kind of parades or walks around the across the stage doing what their characters do. The majority of the cast are pirates. So, everyone's wandering/dancing/fighting across the stage, looking for treasure, dueling, drinking, polishing their various weaponry, and goofing off. We actually worked in some gymnastics in the choreography, like tumbles and a few cartwheels. Stuff like that.

A group of "pirates" drifted onstage. They were consulting a map and pantomiming bickering about what direction to go. Mackenzie and Adrian crossed onstage and began locking swords. They both spun around, darting and parrying each other's blows and -

"STOP!"

Everyone froze. The musicians in the pit band stopped playing. Everyone turned to gape at Cabaji who was standing up in the audience.

"You!" he said, pointing at Adrian. "You're holding that sword all wrong. You're supposed to grip it like you're shaking hands with someone. But you're holding it like you just picked it up! It looks awful. And you-" he said, now pointing at Mackenzie. "Fangirl-chan's friend or whatever your name is. Your footwork it terrible. You wouldn't last five seconds in a real fight. When he thrusts to the side, you turn and parry to the left, not to the right."

"S-sorry." stammered Mackenzie. Adrian, who was shy and didn't always handle criticism well looked terrified.

"Excuse me." said Shane, glowering at Cabaji. "We all appreciate your suggestion, but as you are simply a guest here, I ask that you refrain from comment."

Cabaji rolled his eyes, and resumed his nonchalant position in the audience.

"From the top then, shall we?" said Shane, clapping his hands again.

The musicians resumed their playing. Mackenzie and Adrian resumed their sword fighting. The others resumed their map-consulting. It was at this point the music picked up tempo, and more people made their way onstage. Some of them dancing, twirling their swords, staggering around drunk, stuff like that. I wondered what Cabaji would think of our gymnastics. My friend Diana skipped on happily and did a back spring clear across the stage and then -

"STOP!"

Everyone froze to see Cabaji standing up in the audience again.

"Alright." he said, glowering. "If you're going to do acrobatics onstage, you'd better do it right. First of all, you're not giving each other enough room. It's a big stage! So use it! Otherwise you're going to end up breaking each other's necks. And your form is dreadful. Especially you." he said, now pointing at Diana. "When you did that back spring, it looked more like some pathetic somersault. Your arms were way too weak. You need to spread them out a bit more for better support."

"Sir." said Shane, looking a little more than annoyed. "_I_ am the choreographer here, not _you_. So I suggest you sit down and shut up or I'll throw you out."

"_You're_ the choreographer?" said Cabaji, turning on him. "So you're the one responsible for this pathetic excuse for dancing? You call that choreography?"

Mackenzie shot me a look that clearly said _maybe this wasn't a good idea…_

Shane looked like was about to spontaneously combust with anger.

"Sir," said Shane through clenched teeth. "I have been to dance academies all over the world and have degrees from the _best_ dance schools. And if you expect me to allow a mere amateur like you to criticize my -"

But Cabaji wasn't listening. He had jumped up onto the stage and was continuing his explanation to Diana, who looked positively horrified.

"Now like I just said." said Cabaji, still addressing Diana. "Spread your arms for more support. And when your feet are up, push off from your elbows, not from your wrists. You'll end up breaking them when you're trying to land."

"Get off my stage!" yelled Shane.

"Here, see if you can copy me." said Cabaji, paying Shane absolutely no attention. "Everyone move."

Everyone did move. No one seemed to want to get too close to Cabaji, so they spread out and gave him a wide berth.

Cabaji backed up, broke into a run, jumped and vaulted into an absolutely flawless back spring. It was simple perfection. Everyone gaped at him. Even Shane looked surprised.

"It's all in the balance and support you get from your arms." said Cabaji, straightening up and turning back to Diana. "See, it's easy. I could do back springs when I was like, seven."

Everyone was still staring at him.

"What?" he said. "It's not that hard. It's basic acrobatics. I just can't stand bad form. I hate watching someone butcher such a simple move."

"This is _my_ choreography!" yelled Shane, regaining his composure. "Not yours!"

"Well I'm just trying to fix the mess you made of it." said Cabaji, rolling his eyes.

He made to walk off the stage, but caught sight of Adrian again.

"Hey you!" he said, rounding on Adrian. "What did I tell you? You're holding the sword wrong again! Hold it like you're shaking hands with someone! Here, give it to me!"

Without waiting for Adrian's consent, Cabaji grabbed the sword out of his hands.

"Oh man, this sword is a piece of shit." said Cabaji, looking it over. "It's completely blunt. How do you expect to kill anyone with a blunt sword?"

"Do you honestly think we'd allow a bunch of teenagers to have actual sharpened weapons?" yelled Shane. "And for the last time, get of the stage!"

"This sword is worthless." said Cabaji. "Even if the blade was sharp, the handle's all screwed up and bent. No wonder you're holding it wrong. Here, you can use mine."

He tilted his head back and reached into his throat, withdrawing his sword.

The entire cast screamed, Shane included.

"God, you're all as bad as those fangirl-freaks from the library." muttered Cabaji, but everyone seemed to be too much in shock to really care what he was saying.

He turned and handed the sword to Adrian, who simply gaped at him in terror.

"If you so much as dent, scratch, bend, chip, mar or break this sword in anyway, I will rip your arms out of their sockets." said Cabaji. "And you'd _better_ hold it right."

Adrian gingerly took the sword. I was afraid he would pass out or something.

I heard Mackenzie whisper to him, "He's not kidding. You better hold it right."

Cabaji jumped off the stage and walked casually by Shane.

"Sir…I…I demand that you leave immediately!" Shane expostulated, positively fuming as he pointed a rigid finger at the door.

"Hey that's a nice coat." said Cabaji, looking at Shane's long purple Seto Kaiba-ish outfit. "I know a _lady_ who's got one just like it."

There was a considerable "oooooo" from the actors, as the insult finally dawned Shane. (Cabaji was obviously referring to Alvida, though Mackenzie and I were of course the only ones who had made that connection.) Shane, looking positively mutinous, opened his mouth to retort, thought better of it, and closed it.

"Right then." said Cabaji, sitting back down, and kicking his feet up. "Let's take it from the top."

* * *

Cabaji spent the entire next hour "fixing" all our choreography. He even cut out some of Shane's work and made up completely new choreography for it on the spot. Most of it involved dangerous flips and highly complex acrobatics, but he was more than glad to attempt to teach everyone. By the time Ms. Lawrence got back, our overture looked almost completely different, not to mention way better.

"This is incredible Shane!" said Ms. Lawrence, as everyone tumbled about the stage in perfect acrobatic coordination. "But I think we're going to have to tone it down just a bit. This is _Pirates of Penzance_, not a production of Cirque du Soleil."

Shane, who had been slumped in a chair and somewhat in shock, now mutely shook his head and pointed at Cabaji.

"You did the choreography?" said Ms. Lawrence, staring at him.

"Yeah. I guess so." said Cabaji, shrugging.

"Amazing!" said Ms. Lawrence enthusiastically. "You're familiar with dance and choreography?"

"Uh…I suppose." said Cabaji, looking a little taken aback by Ms. Lawrence's praise. "I mean, I'm an acrobat, so I know this kind of stuff."

"An acrobat?" said Ms. Lawrence, raising an eyebrow. "Have you ever worked with Cirque du Soleil?"

"Cirque du what?" said Cabaji blankly.

"Cirque Du Soleil!" cried Ms. Lawrence. "They're only the greatest acrobatic circus in all of Canada!"

"Uh…I've been in loads of circuses, but definitely not one called 'Cirque du Soleil." said Cabaji, still looking somewhat confused.

"My goodness!" cried Ms. Lawrence. "You've never heard of Cirque du Soleil? You're clearly not from around here, are you?"

"Can't say I am." said Cabaji, while Mackenzie and I giggled at this.

"Grace!" said Ms. Lawrence. "You will have to show your highly acrobatic friend here just how spectacular Cirque du Soleil is!"

"We'll check it out on YouTube tonight." I said, happy I wouldn't have to spend another night watching bodies get torn apart in Blu-Ray high definition.

That night I managed to bring up YouTube on my painfully slow computer and we watched clips from dozens of Cirque du Soleil performances.

Mackenzie called us at ten o'clock in evident distress.

"Grace!" she said desperately. "I've drawn exactly twenty-four pictures of Roy Mustang and nothing's happened yet!"

I didn't want to tell her that I wasn't sure if Miss Goldenweek came to characters of other manga, or if Mackenzie's drawings were just so bad that it was impossible to recognize them as Roy Mustang. She did have a thing for bulging muscles and lots of hair, which was probably why her drawings usually ended up looking like Chopper's heavy point form stuffed into a state alchemist uniform. I assured her that hopefully something would happen, and promptly hung up to return to watching Cirque du Soleil.

"This is amazing." murmured Cabaji, as we watched trapeze artists launch themselves from chandeliers in a scene from _Corteo. _"Absolutely amazing."

"It's even better live." I said, grinning. "I've seen _Corteo_, _Allegria_, and _Kooza_."

"You've seen them live?" asked Cabaji, sounding distinctly jealous.

"It helps when you have a French teacher who's good friends with the manager." I said, recalling my old French teacher, Madame Frances. "She used to get take classes on field trips to see them.

"Amazing." repeated Cabaji, staring in reverent awe at the performance. "Absolutely amazing."

That night, when Cabaji had finally fallen asleep, I made a phone call.

"_Bonjour, Madame Frances? Oui? C'est Grace. Ah, oui…ça va bien. Toi aussi? Bien. Écoutez, est-ce que tu connais encore le directeur du Cirque du Soleil? Vraiment? Ah…c'est fantastique! Peux-je demander pour un service…?"_

* * *

**My French skills aren't exactly **_**fantastique**_**, but if you really want to know what Grace was saying the translation is roughly: "Hey, what's up Madame Frances? Do you still know the director of Cirque du Soleil? Awesome. Can I ask a favor?"**

**If anyone is better at French than I am by all means point out any grammar mistakes you find. **

**I know I've been a bad author by not updating and I don't deserve reviews…but perhaps you could find it within your kind and forgiving hearts to press the little purple button anyway? Please? **_**Please?**_


	10. In Which There is Little Time Left

**In this chapter, things take a rather sappy and dramatic turn, and I'm sorry that I have a weakness for writing such mush.**

**And I also do something very, very, very, very bad.  
Please don't think I'm jumping the shark, and please don't jump to any weird conclusions about me as an OP fangirl or author.  
This was something interesting I thought I would throw in, because I'm the author and I can do what I want. :)**

**I put myself in this story. That's right. Me. the scarlet butterfly. I'm in my own story! Does this prove to you all finally that I am not Grace? **

**I'm only briefly mentioned….**_**very**_** briefly, it's like a weenie little cameo. Now I know everyone looks down on self-inserts, which is why its such a bad thing, but when I was when I was doing final edits chapter the opportunity just presented itself and I had put it in. No one hate me for doing this. Please?**

**I own nothing except Grace and myself. (which should be kind of obvious. I mean, I would hope I own myself…)**

* * *

"Grace?"

"Y-yeah…. Cabaji?"

"Grace?"

"What ….Cabaji-chan? Do you…. want …toast?"

"No Grace, it's me. The Magical-"

But before the voice of Miss Goldenweek could finish announcing her title, I had sat up to see Miss Goldenweek sitting on the edge of the bed with her paintbrush and fluffy little clip-on wings. Stunned at seeing her again, I began stammer out as many expressions of gratitude as I could when my brain was as groggy as it was at one o'clock in the morning.

"Miss Goldenweek!" I cried in absolute delight. "I really don't know how I can thank you enough for bringing Cabaji here! Really, I can't believe you actually managed to…"

"Grace."

"…use my fan art like a portal! It's like something straight out of a fanfiction! Only I don't know what I'm going to do when my parents come home…

"Grace!"

"…I'm kind of procrastinating about that, because it's so awesome having Cabaji live here, so I'm sure I'll figure out something, …

"GRACE!"

I stopped, staring at Miss Goldenweek, shocked. I hadn't thought she was capable of raising her voice. It was completely OOC or her.

"Grace." said Miss Goldenweek. "I'm sorry to tell you, but Cabaji can't stay here."

"What?" I cried, bolting upright. "Why not?"

"Because he doesn't belong in this world. That's just how it is." she said. "He's technically not part of your world, so he belongs back where he came from. The story can't continue without one of its characters."

"But… that doesn't make any sense." I said distractedly. I was horrified, shocked, confused. This couldn't be happening. Why on earth did Cabaji need to go back when he could stay here?

"One Piece can go on without Cabaji." I said desperately. "I mean, no one's going to miss him. We haven't even seen him for ages. Everyone's forgotten about characters like him. He's not needed! No one cares about him, no one but me, that is. He's just another minor character as far as everyone else is concerned. He's just another character to bash to most of them, but _I_ actually care about him, so why can't he just stay here with me?"

"Because it doesn't work that way." said Miss Goldenweek. "_Every_ character has a part to play, no matter how small. Look at me. I was there for Little Garden, and then that was it. Unless you count my side story. But I still have to be there in order for the story to work properly. And what about characters like Coby? He was that nerdy little kid no one cared about, then all of a sudden he unexpectedly shows up again and now he's got lots of fangirls."

"But that's different!" I protested. "You-"

"No it isn't, Grace." Miss Goldenweek calmly cut in. "What about all the vast numbers of Zoro, Sanji, Luffy and Ace fangirls? I can't just cut characters like them completely away from the story, can I? What would happen if I took a character like Sanji away forever, so he could stay with one of his fangirls? Is it fair to corrupt the story just so one just so one fangirl can have her way? You saw the blank spaces Cabaji left behind, didn't you? It's not complete without him. And it's not as if I can merely duplicate the characters and leave multiple copies of Luffy and Zoro to go running around with their fangirls."

"But loads of people care about Luffy and Sanji and whoever!" I protested. "No one else cares about Cabaji! No one but me!

"I can't let some characters be removed from the story but not others. I can remove someone for a limited amount of time, but eventually they always have to go back. _Everyone_ needs to play their part. There are no exceptions."

I stared at her. I felt frozen and numbed. This couldn't be happening.

"But…" I began.

"I'm sorry Grace." said Miss Goldenweek. "The story doesn't discriminate characters, no matter who they are, or what part they play."

I didn't know what I was supposed to say. I could only stare at her in utter disbelief. I became aware that I was crying.

Miss Goldenweek sighed.

"Grace, you're know that you're not the only fangirl I've done this for. I told you there have been hundreds of others who've had their artwork brought to life, but you're not the only one who's unique, you know. Yes, it is rare to run across obscure fangirls like you who love the characters no one seems to, but they are out there. I've met girls in love with Foxy and Don Creek and fanboys who swooned over Cindry and Sadi-chan. It's uncommon and unusual, but it's people like you who make my job all the more interesting. I never know what kind of fangirl or boy I'll run into next."

If this was supposed to cheer me up it had absolutely no effect.

"I didn't think you get it." said Miss Goldenweek with another sigh. "You have until tomorrow night with Cabaji. I can't hang around here forever. There's a girl named Scarlet not too far from here who's infatuated with Lady Alvida."

I gaped at her.

"Alvida? Are you serious? Is she…?"

"Does that matter, Grace?" said Miss Goldenweek, turning her head. "She could be in love, yes, or maybe she just wants a big sister. It's not my role to judge why and how we love who we do."

She crossed to my window and climbed out onto the sill, where she sat down and pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. Drawing her large paintbrush, she carefully traced it over the paper, which I could only assume was a drawing. Maybe it was of Alvida.

However in my state of numb shock, a question came to my mind that hadn't occurred to me upon the first time we had met.

"Miss Goldenweek," I asked tentatively. "Has…has anyone ever drawn you?"

She turned back to look at me, and in the dim light and shadow I could make out her expression. But when she spoke, I heard the sweet childish delight in her voice that I knew could only belong to one such as Miss Goldenweek.

"Yes." she said. "Once. Only once. It was….wonderful."

And then she was gone.

I sat there for awhile, and then slowly, I stood up and walked to the next room. Cabaji was sprawled across the couch. I quietly lay down next to him, trying not to disturb him. I felt his arm curl around my shoulder.

"Fangirl-chan." he murmured.

"Cabaji, I…you have to…" I said, trying not to make it obvious that I was crying.

"I know." he said quietly. "I have known."

"Y-you did?" I sobbed, unable to control myself now. "T-then why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you thinking about it." said Cabaji. "Telling you wouldn't have made the day come any slower, and it would have only made you unhappy."

He paused.

"You were such a little weirdo." he chucked. "You made me laugh, and I knew you wouldn't be the same if you knew. I didn't want it hanging over your head and making you miserable."

I twisted my hand around his scarf.

"Tomorrow we're going to do something special." I said. "Something amazing. Something you'll love. I promise."

* * *

The theatre was huge, massive and lavishly decorated, but yet with so many people filling in the space it could suddenly seem rather small.

"I hate crowds." said Cabaji.

"Me too." I said, clutching his hand, terrified of being separated amidst the throngs of people.

"How on earth did you manage to get tickets, to…whatever this is?" Cabaji asked.

"I've got my connections." I said, grinning. "It helps when you've got a French teacher who's well acquainted with the manager.

"You look lovely." he said, quietly. I blushed.

I was in a semi-formal dress, typical theatre attire for me, and Cabaji looked like he always did, though I had at least got him to wear a shirt so we wouldn't be thrown out for not following the "no shoes no shirt no service: policy.

We gave our tickets to the usher, who showed to our front row seats.

"So, what kind of a performance is this again?" Cabaji asked. "Is it Shakespeare? I love Shakespeare. Especially the plays where everybody dies at end. Like Macbeth, or Hamlet."

"You hate books," I said incredulously, recalling the day at the bookstore. "And yet you enjoy Shakespeare?"

"Books are just a bunch of words." said Cabaji, rolling his eyes as if this should have been obvious. "Now Shakespeare, Shakespeare is _poetry_."

"A pair of star-crossed lovers…" I murmured quietly, thinking of how this was the last day I would be with him. It had been a love doomed from the start.

"What?" Cabaji asked, evidently having not heard me.

"Never mind." I said quickly, blushing slightly.

"So what is this exactly that we're seeing?" Cabaji asked again.

"I told you the whole train ride down, it's a _surprise_. I know you'll love it."

At that moment, the house lights dimmed overhead and a voice boomed out over the theatre.

"Bienvenue tout le monde! Des filles et garçons, madames et monsieurs, bienvenue au une expérience spectaculaire! Si vous plait voyez des sortirs et fermer tout des électroniques…."

"What are they saying?" Cabaji muttered.

"It's French." I said. "They're just welcoming us and telling us to turn off our cell phones and where the exits are in case the theatre burns down."

"Is the theatre likely to burn down?" asked Cabaji.

"I doubt it." I chuckled. "But you never know with the stunts these people pull off."

"Et maintenant madames et monsieurs, des filles et garçons, beinvenue….au Cirque du Soleil!"

"You're kidding." said Cabaji, staring at me. "Did he…did he really just say what I thought he said?"

I grinned at his stunned expression.

"And now ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls," I translated. "Welcome…to Cirque du Soleil!"

* * *

**If anyone wants to know, Cabaji and Grace went to go see "Quidam" which means in French, "an individual." The story is about the borderlines of imagination and reality, and girl who discovers how to walk the line between the two and escape the boredom of her everyday life, so I thought it somewhat appropriate.**

**Don't hate me for being in the story. Please don't. But I do love Alvida enough to wish Miss Goldenweek would show up and bring some of my fanart to life. And by the way, you haven't seen the last of **_**me**_**. Heh heh…. **

**Please review! You have very limited chapters left! Make them count and tell me your thoughts! See, I was good! I updated within a reasonable amount of time see? Push the button. Please push it. You know you want to. **


	11. In Which it Ends

**Second-last chapter my friends! Only one more after this! This is a pretty short chapter compared to the length I usually post, but since it's a really important chapter I figured I would play for quality not quantity.**

**Granted however…this is the cheesy "OMG Goodbye" chapter, but I tried to tone down the clichés as much as I could, but unfortunately a few escaped in here. *Sob* No more Cabaji after this chappie! He's gone! *more sobs* **

**I own nothing.**

**P.S. When I wrote the first draft of this chapter, (a good year or so ago.) I cried. You can see the blotches all over my notebook pages, it's quite amusing actually. **

* * *

"That was…amazing! Just, absolutely amazing! Incredible! I mean, I know we saw performances on your computer-thing, but seeing them _live_! It's a completely different experience! I bet I couldn't do half of the things they did in that performance!"

"Oh, I bet you could."

"Seriously, the choreography techniques were so complex! They must have to practice for months just to get one sequence down! And the trapeze artists…."

Cabaji had talked nonstop the minute we were out of the theatre. I had never seen him so elated. All the way to the train station and all the way he relived the entire performance of _Quidam, _while I could only try to take in as much of him, his voice, his presence, his being, as I could, and soak of every last second I had with him.

"You know fangirl-chan," said Cabaji quietly. "If I could stay, I'd teach you to be and acrobat, and then the both of us would go and join Cirque du Soleil. Wouldn't that great?"

It sounded absolutely wonderful. Just the two of us, the stars of Cirque du Soleil. But I knew it could never happen, so I just nodded, because I was afraid if I tried to say anything I would start crying.

After tonight, my life, as his, would go back to normal.

The train let us off and we slowly walked back to my house. It was close to midnight, as I unlocked the gate to my backyard. The stars were bright and the grass was dewy against my toes poking out of my sandals.

"How lovely." I murmured, looking up at the nightscape.

"Just like you." said Cabaji suddenly.

I turned, and before I could even react he had thrown his arms around me and lifted me off my feet and tossed me into the air. I cried out in surprise, but he deftly caught me and spun me around until I was dizzy and laughing.

"Let's dance." he said, setting me back on my feet, though I barely had time to move before he grabbed my hands and swung me around.

It was too perfect, all too blissfully magic and wonderful.

And it was ending.

I started crying. I didn't want to, but suddenly I couldn't help myself.

"Oh dammit, fangirl-chan. Don't cry." said Cabaji, sounding highly annoyed, as I continued sobbing hysterically. "I'm no good with stuff like this."

He stopped swinging me around and pulled me into a hug. I was shocked…he'd never hugged me before.

"I'm s-sorry." I wailed.

"Fangirl-chan, you know it pisses me off when you apologize for everything!"

"I'm s-….never mind."

I hiccupped loudly through my tears. I could feel all the mascara I had put on for the occasion running down my face.

Cabaji chuckled.

"_I'm_ the one who's sorry." he said. "Sorry it has to be like this. Sorry that I have to go."

"I won't forget you." I said, knowing how ridiculously clichéd I sounded. "I'll always…always remember you."

"I don't want you to dwell on this." said Cabaji, patting me on the head, if a bit awkwardly. I don't want it to let it deter you from anything. Promise me that you won't, okay? Because you are such a unique and beautiful person, if not a little weird."

In spite of myself I managed a watery laugh.

"And you're going to grow up and fall in love all over again with someone who's just and unique and wonderful, and probably a little weird too, and loves you for it. Someone who will love you for who you are, and always be there for you, which is something I very much wish I could do."

"You do?"

"Of course I do, fangirl-chan." said Cabaji. "You think I'm just going to forget about how awesome you were to me? You think I don't care about you? I care about you _so_ much. You're going to go on and live wonderful life while I remain preserved in my sheltered little world that can't meet your reality. I want you to know though, that not a day will go by when I won't think of how much fun we had, how much fun _you_ were, how much, I _loved_ being with you, how you stuck to me, no matter how much of an idiot I was most of the time."

I clung to him, as if doing so could keep him here; preserve him, if only for a minute longer.

He lifted my chin up to look him.

"I've never had a fangirl before." he said, with a smile. "But I have the _best_ fangirl in the whole world, be it my world, or yours."

"Cabaji…" murmured.

Slowly, he tilted my head up, and pressed his lips into mine. His hands were clasped in my own, but they were fading, less solid, less real. I stared up at him, and I knew it was time. It was over.

He looped his scarf around my neck, and broke away form me.

"Grace." he whispered. "I love you."

And he was gone.


	12. In Which it Begins

**Here we are my friends! The last chapter! If you've followed the story up to this point, I just want to say "Wow!" and above all "Thank you." It's not everyone who would take the time to read a CabajixOC story. It's been awesome posting this, and I hope you've enjoyed it. (Even if my updating/posting got to be sporadic…I'm really sorry about not always having my chapters organized.) **

**I'm sorry this last chappie took so long to get to you…I been setting up my dA account. Thanks to me, dA now features AlxCa art! Yay! I'm spreading the love! **

**Oh yeah…remember how I said you hadn't seen the last of **_**me?**_** Keep that in mind my friends, and no one get mad about the weenie little self-insert.**

**I own nothing except for my characters and myself. There's a Katekyo Hitman Reborn reference in this chapter. I couldn't get away without mentioning Lambo. **

**Thank you so much for sticking with me through this story. And now…enjoy the finale of "The Fangirl and the Magical Paintbrush Fairy!"**

* * *

He was gone.

That was it. He was gone. It was over. Done. Finished. I would never see again, except back in the 2-dimensional world he was stuck in.

I moped around the house wallowing in self-pity and being absolutely miserable. I was a complete wreck. I looked at the toaster and burst into tears. I looked at my i-pod and burst into tears. I looked at the DDR mat and burst into tears. I looked at just about _anything_ and burst into tears.

My picture had been restored. It was no longer blank and remained in the spot where I had hung it the night Miss Goldenweek showed up.

Then there was his scarf. I wouldn't take it off. The simple fact that he had left me with his scarf had stunned me. It was his trademark, he always wore it. How could he have possible left it behind?

Then it occurred to me that he probably had twenty more or so exactly like it in his closet.

Mackenzie called me four times, but I didn't want to pick the phone and waffle about her over-muscled and hairy pictures of Roy Mustang.

"Grace!" she ranted into my answering machine. "I've drawn 51 pictures of Roy Mustang, and nothing's happened, so now I'm going to try drawing some pictures of Kakashi. Do you think Miss Goldenweek will show up for him? Or maybe I should try someone a little younger. How about Sasuke? Only he's got tons of fangirls, so maybe I should try someone else… Hey how about Lambo? _Adult_ Lambo obviously, totally not five year-old Lambo, that would be pervy, only I can't decide of I like fifteen year-old Lambo or twenty-five year-old Lambo better. I'll just draw both. Only why do they call fifteen year-old Lambo _Adult_ Lambo anyway? I mean, he's only fifteen, heck, we're older than he is, but I don't see anyone calling us "Adults." Maybe it's some sort of code the mafia have, you know…"

(I unplugged the phone eventually.)

I dragged myself out of my house to go to the mall, if only for something to take my mind off things.

I walked by the library, thinking morosely of the day that Cabaji had shown up the entire One Piece Otaku Fangirl Club. I couldn't help but wonder what they were doing now.

"Omigawd, that is like, _so_ not fair."

"Totally."

It seemed I was about to find out.

I quickly threw myself into the nearest hedge hoping that they hadn't notice me, as the group of them stalked out of the library doors and flopped down on the steps. I watched them through the leaves realizing what a creep I was being.

"So like, I get kicked out for smoking in the library." I heard Sanji-Fangirl mutter. "What gives?"

She launched into a bout of several hacking coughs.

"You know Britney, maybe you should like, cut back a little bit."

(So they did actually had names besides "Sanji-Fangirl" and "Luffy-Fangirl")

"But, it's part of my fandom!" 'Britney' protested.

"OH LOOK! A PENNY!" Nami-Fangirl shrieked suddenly, scooping the little coin off the ground and clutching it with delight. The other fangirls seemed completely unfazed by this, as they were probably use to Nami-Fangirl picking up loose change.

It occurred to me that there was a new girl among them. She was very goth with a fro and a top hat and she clutched a walking stick. No doubt they'd found themselves a Brook-Fangirl.

"You know, I still like, don't believe you guys." she said. "I mean, come on…this Grace chick sounds kind of sketchy."

I wasn't sketchy! Then again, I was spying on them from the inside of a bush.

"She's not sketchy. She's just like, really weird." said Franky-Fangirl. This coming from a girl who wears spandex hasn't shaved her legs in six months.

"She's a Cabaji-Fangirl? No one likes Cabaji. And you like think this guy with her was like, _actually_ Cabaji? Cabaji's not real, he was probably just a really good cosplayer."

"No! He wasn't just a cosplayer!" said Luffy-Fangirl.

"He like, had the scars from the fight with Zoro."

"He like, pulled a sword out of his throat!"

"He was real! He had to be!"

"Okay, okay, if you say so." said Brook-Fangirl, but she didn't seem to actually believe them.

They were all quiet for a moment, save for hacking coughs from Sanji-Fangirl and giggles from Nami-Fangirl as she examined her new penny.

"How do you think it happened?" said Robin-Fangirl eventually. "How could it be possible someone like Cabaji to show up in our world?"

"Surely if Cabaji can turn up here, other characters can too." said Usopp-Fangirl.

"You think?" said Zoro-Fangirl eagerly. "That like, Zoro could turn up here?"

"Or Nami?"

"The question is _how_ though." said Robin-Fangirl sagely. "Maybe we could talk to Grace."

"Not if Cabaji's lurking around her! He'd kill us!"

"And I somehow doubt Grace would be too inclined to talk to us."

"Yeah, we've been total bitches to her, just 'cause her fandom is like, weird. I feel kind of bad. We should make it up to her."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Were these girls _really_ the One Piece Otaku Fangirl Club?

"I don't know." said Luffy-Fangirl. "But if there's a way to bring our favorite characters here, we have to find out. Anyway, like, tonight at my house then?"

"I've got like, the DVDs."

"Sweet. I'll like, bring my box set to watch afterwards."

"Alright, let's get going."

They stood up to leave. I wondered how subtly I could manage exiting a bush without them noticing. Crawling out, I decided I would take the opposite direction to the mall in the hopes they wouldn't see me.

"Oh! Grace!"

Apparently my "bush-exiting" skills weren't up to par, as they had clearly seen me. Muttering a word I had learned from Cabaji under my breath, I turned around the face the crowd of fangirls.

"Hi." I said awkwardly, not looking at them.

They were eyeing my apprehensively as if they were afraid that Cabaji was 'lurking' nearby about to attack them. Brook-Fangirl was looked totally freaked out by me.

"He's not here." I managed to say, willing myself not to burst into tears for the seventh time that morning.

The fangirls seemed to take heart in this fact because they brightened considerably.

"Is that like, his scarf?" asked Nami-Fangirl.

I nodded, because I knew if I said something I _would_ start crying.

"Uh…listen Grace." said Luffy-Fangirl, smiling broadly as I tired not to gape at her cleavage. "I'm like, having a bonfire tonight! Would you like to come?"

"What's the bonfire for?" I asked apprehensively. My imagination sent me a horrible mental image of them throwing me into the bonfire screaming "_Burn the degenerate fangirl!_"

"Well, like, Emily here," Luffy-Fangirl said, gesturing to Usopp-Fangirl. "She found a whole ton of the 4kids One Piece DVDs at discount price, and we're like, going to _burn_ them! And then we're going to watch Cathy's latest box set of Enies Lobby and eat lots of meat and drink cola."

"Yeah, everyone like, chipped in the handle the shipping." said Zoro-Fangirl.

I thought about it. As much as I didn't want to admit it, it did sound like fun, not to mention highly satisfying. (The idea of burning Cabaji's ridiculous Greek/Russian/French/German/Italian voice actor was highly appealing.) I couldn't help but wonder if they were just trying to figure out how Cabaji had turned up, or if they were in sincerity. I wanted to think they were in sincerity.

"I'll think about it." I muttered.

"Okay!" said Luffy-Fangirl brightly. "It's like, starting at six, so just show up if you want! And wear your scarf!"

"Thanks." I said, with a half-hearted smile, and walked away before the conversation could turn anywhere else.

* * *

I eventually made it to the mall, only to wander aimlessly among the masses of people. How on earth could there be happy people in this world actually having a good time shopping? Who the hell cared about _shopping_ when there was no more Cabaji?

I wandered into some random clothes store and flung myself down on a chair outside the dressing room. A girl about my age was sitting in another chair opposite me and surveying me with interest.

"That's a really nice scarf." she said, smiling and pointing.

I gave her the dirtiest look I could manage.

The girl looked taken aback and looked away somewhat awkwardly. Then I felt really guilty, but it wasn't as if she could have possibly understood how I felt, how special it was, or what it meant.

Suddenly, the curtains of the nearest dressing room flew open and the most stunning woman I had ever seen stepped out in a sparkling red dress. She had jetty black curls that swung about her face, bright green eyes, a flawless figure and…almost unnaturally perfect skin.

My mind seemed to freeze.

No way…it couldn't possibly…

The girl leapt out of her seat with a "_squee_" of delight that could have _only_ belonged to another fangirl.

"Alvida nee-san!" she cried, her enormous eyes pooling up with tears of delight. "You look beautiful! Beautiful!" She threw her arms around the woman, practically sobbing happiness.

"Of _course_ I do, Scarlet-chan." said the woman, patting the girl on the head as if she was quite used to this.

"I'm going to buy it for you, Alvida nee-san! It's perfect! Absolutely perfect!"

"Oh really Scarlet, you're such a sweetheart." the woman said, planting a kiss on 'Scarlet's' cheek. Scarlet turned bright red and looked as though she could have fainted with joy.

I stared at them.

I could only stare.

Until they caught sight of me. I tried to look as unnoticeable and uninterested as possible, which I epically failed at.

"That's a really interesting scarf." said the beautiful woman, giving me a calculating look.

"I know, isn't it familiar?" said Scarlet, clinging to the woman's arm.

"It is indeed, Scarlet-chan." said the woman, her eyebrows raised at me in a very significant look.

I muttered some unintelligible word of thanks and turned away so as not to be interrogated further.

I watched them buy the dress and waltz happily out of the store chatting happily about what else they were going to buy. I saw the girl named Scarlet link her hand into Lady Alvida's and stare up at with admiration, delight, and simply sheer happiness.

And it was then that I realized that not only had I just met the most beautiful woman on all the seas, but that the girl I had just met _did_ know, and _would_ know, _exactly_ how I felt.

* * *

I walked home, pondering over the scene I had just witnessed.

So there really were others like me.

It was an odd feeling, but there was something fulfilling and somewhat satisfying about it. It was a good sort of feeling, to know that I wasn't alone in harboring obscure fandoms for obscure characters.

Miss Goldenweek had said there were others, others who loved the characters no one else did with just as much fangirl zeal as your everyday fangirls, but seeing for myself had really made something click in my mind. It was quite incredible, and I wondered how many more of these "obscure fangirls" I would find, if I looked.

Then suddenly it occurred to me what I wanted to do. I wanted share the experience. There _were_ other obscure fangirls like me, who needed to know.

I would recreate Miss Goldenweek's blessing, and share with as many One Piece fangirls as I could reach out to, whether they would appreciate my fandom or not. Because there _were_ others like me. I knew that for certain now. And I would find them. I would tell the whole story and truth of being in love with a character like Cabaji, and how I had been given the experience of falling in love with him, in the _real world_. They could believe me or not, it didn't matter, all I wanted to do was make what had happened to me known.

Suddenly I was racing down the sidewalks home. I knew _exactly_ what I wanted. I made up my mind.

I tore into my house and sat down in my room with a notebook and a pencil. It was 3:30. That gave me plenty of write before I would go to Luffy-Fangirl's house and have a fantastic time burning 4kids DVDs.

It had been awhile since I had written a fanfiction.

Even if this wasn't really "fiction."

I put my pen to the paper and began to write.

"Have you ever been in love? Okay. Yeah, I know. You're probably thinking, "Oh god, how cheesy is this story going to be? Why am I even bothering to read it?" But bear with it, just for a minute. Like I said…have you ever been in love? Most of us have, in some way or another. But have you ever been in love with someone you couldn't have, because it was _impossible_? I'm not talking about some famous movie star you might have a crush on, or that tall boy next door who's six years older than you and has no idea you exist. Unattainable and impossible as these romances may be, they are a very different sort of impossible.

Have you ever been in love… truly, truly in love with someone who wasn't real?"

**The End**

* * *

**Well my friends, that's it! The End! I truly hope you have enjoyed reading "The Fangirl and the Magical Paintbrush Fairy" as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

**(Especially because I got my own little cameo with my own favorite character.)**

**Just a fun fact on this story for anyone who's interested, believe it or not, this story was almost a Naruto fic. I wrote the first drafts back when I was still a Naruto fan, and I had it pegged that Sai was going to play the Magical Paintbrush Fairy, and Sakon/Ukon was going to be the character brought to life for Grace. There were just two big problems with this. One, I had decided that Grace was in love with Sakon but it became highly difficult to have romance of any kind because Ukon was always around. Two, Sai was a **_**very**_** boring Magical Paintbrush Fairy. He wouldn't wear the clip on wings. **

**Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my fanfiction, and please, in light of the final chapter, tell me what you thought of the story as a whole! (It's your last chance people, make it count!)**

**Again, I thank you all for reading "The Fangirl and the Magical Paintbrush Fairy."**


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